The conservative-liberal coalition parties of German Chancellor Angela Merkel lost power on Sunday in the small regional state of Schleswig-Holstein (north), according to initial estimates.
This election in the rural, poor, and sparsely populated Land serves as a test for the Merkel government, 16 months before the general elections and one week ahead of a vote considered significantly more crucial, that of North Rhine-Westphalia (west), Germany’s most populous regional state.
According to estimates by the public television ARD, the conservatives CDU see their score slightly decrease by one point to 30.5% compared to the last election in 2009. However, they remain ahead of all the parties in the running. The Liberals (FDP) plummet to 8.4% (down from 14.9%).
Among the parties currently in opposition at the federal and regional levels, the Social Democrats (SPD) see their score rise to 29.7% from 25.4% three years ago, as do the Greens at 13.8%, up from 12.4% in 2009. The Pirates enter, for the third consecutive time, a regional German Parliament by crossing the 5% vote threshold with 8.2%, while Die Linke (radical left) exits with 2.4%.
