"Chancellor Friedrich Merz's party has made a disappointing start to a year packed with German state elections, suffering a narrow defeat in an important industrial region after a prominent candidate powered the environmentalist Greens to a come-from-behind victory."
"Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union was long confident of winning back the governor's office in Baden-Wurttemberg, a region of more than 11 million people in southwestern Germany that is home to automakers Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, among many other companies."
"A CDU victory long looked likely despite the unpopularity of Merz's 10-month-old federal government, which has struggled to get Germany's stagnant economy moving. But the party's poll lead shrank ahead of Sunday's election thanks to a Green campaign focused on Cem Ozdemir."
In Baden-Württemberg's state election, Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) experienced a disappointing loss to the environmentalist Greens. The CDU had been confident of reclaiming the governor's office in this southwestern German region of over 11 million people, home to major automakers like Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. The incumbent Green governor, Winfried Kretschmann, was retiring after 15 years leading this traditionally conservative area. Despite the federal government's unpopularity and economic struggles, the Greens mounted a successful campaign centered on candidate Cem Özdemir, a longtime federal lawmaker and former agriculture minister. Final results showed the Greens securing 30.2% of the vote, narrowly surpassing the CDU.
Read at www.independent.co.uk
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]