MERKEL’S FACTION DEFEATED IN 2 ELECTIONS

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party suffered clear defeats in two German state elections on Sunday at the hands of popular governors from parties further to the left, according to projections. The setback comes six months before a national vote that will determine who succeeds the country’s longtime leader.

Sunday’s votes for new state legislatures in the southwestern states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate kicked off an electoral marathon which features another four state ballots and the Sept. 26 national election.

Amid discontent over a sluggish start to Germany’s vaccination drive, with most coronavirus restrictions still in place and infections rising again, Merkel’s Union bloc has been hit over the past two weeks by allegations that two lawmakers profited from deals to procure masks early in the pandemic.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union already faced a challenging task against wellliked governors. Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and a partial count of votes, showed those governors’ parties — the environmentalist Greens in Baden-Wuerttemberg and the center-left Social Democrats in Rhineland-Palatinate — finishing first, some 7 to 9 percentage points ahead of the CDU. The CDU’s projected showings of about 23 percent and 27 percent, respectively, were the party’s worst since World War II in both states.

“To say it very clearly, this isn’t a good election evening for the CDU,” said the party’s general secretary, Paul Ziemiak. “We would have liked different, better results.”