Germany’s ruling party takes a serious hit in two state elections

GERMANY’S RULING Christian Democrats (CDU) had been expecting a rough night. But the blow delivered on March 14th by voters in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, two states in Germany’s rich south-west that together account for around a fifth of the country’s population, was brutal. In Baden-Württemberg, an industrial powerhouse that the CDU once ruled for nearly six decades, forecasts suggest the party may have slumped to just 23% of the vote, its worst result in a big west German state for generations and four points less than it got last time, in 2016. The CDU was also on course for its worst-ever result in neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate. Just a few months ago the party had high hopes of winning in both places.The two state elections kick off what Germans call a “super election year”, in which six of Germany’s 16 states elect new parliaments ahead of a on September 26th, after which Angela Merkel has said that she will stand down as chancellor. Neither of the states that have just voted is likely to see radical change: , the Greens’ popular premier in Baden-Württemberg (and the party’s only state leader), will begin his third term, and in Rhineland-Palatinate Malu Dreyer of the Social Democrats (SPD) will probably maintain her “traffic-light” coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats.