Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has suffered a historic loss in key elections in two provinces today, seen as referendums on how the country is tackling the coronavirus crisis, the DPA reported.
In the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, the HDZ received a record low support of 23 percent, according to forecast results. This is a decrease compared to the 27 percent that the party received in the previous elections – in 2016.
In the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the HDZ also declined, with 26.5 per cent of voters voting for the party. Until last month, the CDU led the polls.
The election results are the worst performance of the HDZ in both provinces, DPA notes.
This is not a good election night for the HDZ, admitted the party’s general secretary Paul Tsimyak, who explained the party’s poor results with the scandals with the orders for masks and the tension caused by the management of the crisis caused by the epidemic. “The truly dishonest behavior and shamelessness of individual MPs has created great tension in the election campaign,” he said.
The image of the Christian Democrats has been tarnished by a public procurement scandal over masks. Several Conservative lawmakers have resigned after being accused of receiving commissions to settle such orders.
Today’s vote will also affect the election of Merkel’s successor as chancellor and the upcoming regional and federal elections in the autumn. The looming defeat in Baden-Württemberg could help Armin Laschet’s Bavarian rival, Marcus Söder of the Christian Social Union (CSU), become the CDU / CSU’s leading candidate for German chancellor in September.
The results in Baden-Württemberg, where the Greens won 31.5 percent, secured Winfried Kretschmann’s third term as prime minister. Baden-Württemberg was once a bastion of the CDU. There are the headquarters of some of the largest German corporations – Mercedes Benz, Hugo Boss, Robert Bosch and Porsche.
Kretschmann thanked voters who backed him and said he intended to form a “credible and stable government” but declined to say whether the Greens would continue the coalition with the Christian Democrats or create a new one with the Social Democrats, who say 12 percent of the vote. and the business-oriented Free Democratic Party (FDP), which received 11.5 percent.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, as expected, the Social Democrats won, receiving 33.5 per cent of the vote. The HDZ is in second place with 26 percent, but this is its worst result in this province. In third place is Alternative for Germany with 10.5 percent, followed by FDP with 6.5 percent, the Greens with 8.5 percent and the “Free Voters” with 5.5 percent.
In today’s elections in both German provinces, support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AzG) party is falling.
In Baden-Württemberg, 12.5 percent of voters voted for EPs, while in the previous elections in 2016 they were 15.1 percent. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the forecast results also show a decrease in support from 12.6 percent in 2016 to 10.5 percent in today’s elections.
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