KIEL: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives secured a strong win Sunday in state polls in northern Germany, partial results showed, giving a boost to her bid to retain power in national elections in September.
Voters in the small, northern state of Schleswig-Holstein handed her CDU party 32.3 percent, leaving the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) trailing with 26.9 percent, partial results showed.
The vote outcome marked a blow for the Social Democrats who had earlier this year seen a surge in support since new leader Martin Schulz was chosen in February.
But this enthusiasm appeared to be fading, and Schulz’s supporters are increasingly fearful that the momentum he had been surfing on will not carry him into the chancellery, which Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have held since 2005.
The blow to the Social Democrats’ confidence also came one week ahead of a far bigger regional vote in their stronghold of North Rhine-Westphalia, also Germany’s most populous state. (APP)