BERLIN—Impatience at a four-month lockdown and a glacial Covid-19 vaccine rollout have begun to eat away at popular support for German Chancellor
Angela Merkel
and her conservatives months before a general election.
The party suffered a blow on Sunday, recording one of its worst-ever defeats at regional elections in two populous states in Germany’s affluent south, according to preliminary results.
In Baden-Württemberg, one of Germany’s industrial powerhouses and an erstwhile conservative bastion, Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union won only 23.9% of the vote, down from 28% in 2016, according to preliminary results calculated by the ARD broadcaster. In the neighboring Rhineland Palatinate, the party recorded 26.5%, down from 31.8% at the last election. The Green Party took 31.9% of the vote in Baden-Württemberg, while the Social Democrats took 34.2% in Rhineland Palatinate.
The ballots were seen as bellwether contests ahead of…