Angela Merkel allies in comfortable lead at German election
German Chancellor gets big boost just a week before general elections as conservative CSU wins absolute majority in Bavaria.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies have scored a resounding win in a state vote, provisional results show. Sunday’s results, from Germany’s second-most populous region, point to a strong likelihood that Merkel, leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), will clinch a third term in next Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
However, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), junior partners in Bavaria and under Merkel in Berlin, got just 3%, dropping out of the regional parliament.
The conservative ruling Christian Social Union (CSU) captured an absolute majority of seats in the Bavarian parliament with 48.8 percent of the votes, according to provisional results from 73 of the 90 polling districts.
The results raise the prospect of a close finish to see whether she can continue her centre-right government or will have to form a “grand coalition” with her traditional rivals, the Social Democrats. Its strong victory means it can drop the FDP and govern alone.
“One Bavarian in two voted for us,” Horst Seehofer, incumbent state premier, told jubilant supporters.
“That is a huge vote of confidence.”
Merkel campaigned hard in the state’s world-famous beer tents, pointing out that a big win in Bavaria would lend momentum to her bid for another term at the helm of Europe’s top economic power. She did not make any immediate comment on the results but was expected to give her views on Monday.
National polls give Merkel’s conservatives a lead of around 14 points over the main opposition Social Democrats (SPD), who scored just under 20 percent of the vote in Bavaria, historically a conservative state, according to the early results.
The 19.9% recorded was not far above the SPD’s historic low showing of 18.6% in 2008.
However, Merkel’s chief election rival, Peer Steinbrueck of the SPD, took heart from the FDP’s setback.
“This is the 13th state election in a row in which the centre-right love match failed to win,” he told public television. “There is a good chance that this will also happen on the federal level in a week’s time.”
