Exit poll: Merkel’s party loses state election

An ARD
television exit poll indicated Merkel’s Christian Democrats won only 20.5
percent of Sunday’s vote, sharply down from 42.1 percent in 2008.
The poll
sees the Social Democrats triumphant with 49.5 percent, up from 34.1 percent,
virtually securing them an absolute majority in the state legislature. The
Greens gained 2 percent, standing at 11.5 percent.
The poll
sees the pro-business Free Democrats, Merkel’s junior partner in the federal
government, at 6.5 percent, and the Left Party stands at 7 percent.
The vote
came as a test for Merkel’s conservatives at the outset of a series of seven
such votes this year.