Voters in three German states headed to the polls yesterday for regional elections that are seen as a key test of sentiment before a federal vote next month in which German Chancellor Angela Merkel hopes to win a second term.
Merkel and her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) hold a comfortable 12 point to 15 point poll lead over their center-left rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD), ahead of the Sept. 27 national vote and she appears to be cruising toward re-election.
But the SPD sees the state votes — in Saarland, Saxony and Thuringia — as a chance to slow her drive for a second term. A poor performance by the conservatives yesterday would give the SPD a psychological boost for the final phase of the campaign and sour the mood in Merkel’s camp.
Any erosion in support might endanger her hopes of sealing a center-right government next month with the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) and possibly force her into another awkward “grand coalition” with the SPD.
“The SPD will try to make the most of any gains in these regional votes,” said Peter Loesche, emeritus professor of political science at Goettingen University.
Voting began at 8am and the first exit polls were due to be published at 6pm. Because of unusually complex coalition mathematics and policy differences, it could take weeks until new governments are in place.
Conservative allies of Merkel currently govern in all three of the states that were voting yesterday and opinion polls give each of them a lead. But in Saarland, on the French border, and Thuringia, in eastern Germany, victory is far from assured.
In both states, three-way coalitions of the SPD, far-left “Linke” and environmentalist Greens could sweep the incumbents from power if they can overcome their differences.
If this happens in Saarland, a tiny state of 1 million people tucked into a western corner of Germany, it would be the first regional partnership of the SPD and “Linke,” or Left party, in the west of the country.
Direct descendants of former East Germany’s ruling communist party, which built the Berlin Wall, the Left party is loathed by many moderates in the SPD and cooperation with them outside the country’s eastern regions has been taboo until now.
That has forced the SPD leadership into a delicate balancing act — condoning cooperation with the Left at the regional level while ruling it out nationally after next months federal vote.
Merkel’s conservatives are likely to seize on any signs the SPD is ready to work with the Left to stir up voter fears of a dangerous “red wave.”
In the third state of Saxony, Merkel’s conservatives look poised to hold onto power by either continuing their coalition with the SPD or sealing a new partnership with the FDP.
After scoring 9.2 percent in the last election in Saxony, the far-right NPD could fail to reach the five percent threshold required to make it into the state assembly.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
RSS