Merkel’s party suffers losses in two German states: Exit polls

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party is headed for defeat on Sunday, months before a national vote on who will replace her.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right party is projected to suffer clear defeats in two state elections held six months before a national vote that will determine who succeeds the country’s longtime leader. Sunday’s votes for new state legislatures in the southwestern states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate kicked off an electoral marathon that culminates in the September 26 general vote. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) already faced a challenging task against two popular state governors from rival parties. Exit polls for ARD and ZDF television indicated that those governors’ parties – the environmentalist Greens in Baden-Wuerttemberg and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in Rhineland-Palatinate – were set to finish first, some 8 percentage points ahead of the CDU.