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.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS