German Election: Merkel’s CDU secures decisive victory in regional election

While the world was busy focusing on the outcome of the French presidential election, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) secured a convincing victory in a regional election that will boost the morale of the party ahead of this year’s general election to be held in September.

On Sunday, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) won 33 percent of the votes in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s northernmost state; almost 7 percent points more of their main rival, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) which won just 26.2 percent of the votes. The Green party won 13.3 percent of the votes, Liberal free democrats won 11.5 percent of the votes and the German right-wing party Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) won just 5.6 percent of the votes. This result is based on exit polls.

Depending on the final result, Merkel’s CDU is in a good position to form the government which would replace the previous coalition government run by SPD.

This is yet another indication that the momentum could be closing down for the SPD chancellor candidate Martin Schultz whose popularity rating surpassed that of Angela Merkel earlier in the year.