Merkel’s Coalition Loses Elections in Crucial German Province

Angela Merkel's ruling coalition has lost the North Rhine-Westphalia elections while she was in Moscow for the Victory Day parade for the 65th year since the defeat of Nazi Germany. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Exit polls by ARD TV channel suggest that Germany’s ruling coalition has suffered a defeat in the elections in the country’s most populous province, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won 34.3%, and its coalition partners, the Free Democrats won only 6%.

This paves the way for the Social-Democrat Party of Germany with 34.4% and the Greens, who almost doubled their votes since 2005, getting 12.5%, to form a coalition government.

However, the elections in North Rhine - Westphalia have wider repercussions for Germany.

They were the first test for the Chancellor Angela Merkel's six-month-old coalition CDU and FDP government.

A victory for the SPD and the Greens would cost the ruling government its majority in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament which represents the 16 federal states, as the seats in the Bundesrat depend on the representation in the provincial governments.

The election loss for the ruling coalition comes just days after the German parliament approved EUR 22.4 B emergency bailout for Greece, a move that has proved deeply unpopular with voters.

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