Merkel's CDU party suffers heavy setbacks in two state elections - China.org.cn

Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party suffered heavy setbacks in two state elections on Sunday, an inauspicious start in the key election year which is expected to produce a successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The votes in the southwestern states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate are the first of seven elections in Germany this year, including a federal election set in September.

The CDU garnered 23.6 percent of the vote, down from 27 percent in the last election, in its stronghold Baden-Wuerttemberg, while the Greens won 32.4 percent according to the preliminary result reported by local broadcaster ARD.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the CDU got 26.8 percent of the vote while the Social Democratic Party (SPD) gained popularity by securing 36 percent of voter support, the exit poll showed.