Germany: Merkel’s conservatives win state election

BERLIN (AA) - Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have beaten their rival Social Democrats in a state election on Sunday, giving another boost to their hopes of victory in September’s national election.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has won 33.3 percent of the vote in the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein, up from 30.8 in the previous state election in 2012, according to the early results broadcasted by the public television ARD.

Social Democratic Party (SPD), which was leading a three-party coalition in the state, gained 26.5 percent, a loss of 3.9 percent over 2012.

Sunday’s vote was widely seen as a test of support for Chancellor Merkel and her CDU, ahead of the country's general election on September 24.

While CDU has managed to win the vote on Sunday in Schleswig-Holstein, it failed to win an absolute majority at the state parliament, and CDU’s top candidate Daniel Gunther said they will carry out talks with the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) and The Greens for possible coalition scenarios.

He also did not rule out a potential “grand coalition” between the CDU and SPD.

On Sunday’s election, FDP achieved its best election outcome in this state by gaining 11.2 percent, up from 8.2 in the previous election.

The Greens gained 12.9 percent, suffering only a minor loss of 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) managed to win 5.9 percent of the vote in its first election in this state, and have secured four seats at the state parliament.

It has so far won seats in 12 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments on an anti-immigration and anti-Islam platform.