Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union slumped to its worst ever results in two former strongholds as voters, angered by government missteps over coronavirus and a flurry of corruption allegations against CDU MPs, deserted the party in droves.
Projections by Germany’s Ard TV channel gave the CDU 24 per cent in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg, far behind the Greens, and 27 per cent in the western region of Rhineland-Palatinate, where they lost to the left-of-centre Social Democrats.
The results could harm CDU leader Armin Laschet’s ambitions of running as the centre-right’s candidate for chancellor in September’s Bundestag elections. Many conservatives would prefer Markus Söder, leader of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party the CSU, to run instead.
“It’s a disastrous result for the CDU,” said Susanne Eisenmann, the party’s top candidate in the Baden-Württemberg election. “We now have to figure out why, for more than ten years,…