BERLIN (AP) — The Latest on Germany's local election the central state of Hesse (all times local):

Exit polls show Chancellor Angela Merkel's party leading in a state election in the central German region of Hesse, but a significant drop in support for both her conservatives and their center-left partners in the national government.

The exit polls for ARD and ZDF public television gave Merkel's Christian Democratic Union up to 28 percent support and the center-left Social Democrats 20 percent. When Hesse last elected its state legislature in 2013, they won 38.3 and 30.7 percent, respectively.

There were gains for the Greens, who were roughly level with Social Democrats at up to 20 percent. And the far-right Alternative for Germany was on course to enter the last of Germany's 16 state parliaments with up to 13 percent.

The election has unusually high national political significance following months of infighting in Merkel's federal coalition.

Germany's central region of Hesse is voting in a state election marked by discontent with infighting in the national government — and its results could help determine whether Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration has a long-term future.

Sunday's election for the state legislature in Hesse, which includes Germany's financial center of Frankfurt, comes as support for the country's governing parties is sliding and tensions are high in a federal coalition in office only since March.

Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union is defending its 19-year hold on Hesse, previously a stronghold of the center-left Social Democrats, the chancellor's federal coalition partners in Berlin. A disastrous result for either or both parties could further destabilize the national government and ultimately the position of Merkel, Germany's leader for the past 13 years.

Two weeks ago, two of the federal governing parties were battered in a state election in neighboring Bavaria. That has given extra significance to the election in Hessen, which is home to 6.2 million of Germany's 82 million people. </s> Voting began on Sunday in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where polls project the anti-immigrant Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party will make huge gains amid growing discontent with Chancellor Angela Merkel and her open-door refugee policy.

The election, taking place exactly a year after Merkel’s decision to open Germany’s borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees, will be followed by another key vote in Berlin in two weeks and national elections next September.

Voters already punished Merkel in three state elections in March, voting in droves for the AfD and rejecting Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a small coastal state in northeastern Germany with just 1.3 million eligible voters, but losses there would be humiliating for Merkel, who has her own electoral district in the state.

The AfD, founded two years after the last election in the state, is expected to capture 22 percent of the vote, the same as Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), junior partner in the state’s ruling coalition, according to a poll by broadcaster ZDF.

The Social Democrats, senior partners in the state’s ruling coalition, are expected to win 28 percent of the vote, compared with 35.6 percent in the last state-wide election in 2011.

The AfD is also making gains nationwide, a new poll showed Sunday. If the national election were held next week, The AfD would win 12 percent of the vote, making it the third-largest party in Germany, according to a poll conducted by the Emnid institute for the Bild newspaper and published on Sunday.

That would catapult the party into the German parliament for the first time since its creation in 2013.

Merkel, mulling a bid for a fourth term as chancellor, made a last-minute campaign appearance on Saturday in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, warning against the politics of “angst” offered by AfD with its virulent anti-refugee stance.

“Every vote counts,” she said. “This election is about the future of this state.” She urged voters to look beyond divisive campaign slogans and consider the policies of the current coalition that had halved unemployment and pumped up tourism in the northeastern coastal state.

In an interview in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper, Merkel defended her decision to welcome so many migrants fleeing conflict in the Middle East, and denied the influx had cut funding for the German public.

Merkel’s approval ratings have sunk to a five-year low of 45 percent over the past year, but the chancellor said she would act no differently if faced with the same situation today.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a fellow Christian Democrat, rejected criticism from some in the CDU’s Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party that Merkel’s refugee policy was responsible for the rise of the AfD party.

The Emnid poll said 63 percent of Germans believed that too.

“I consider that preposterous,” he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. “The refugee crisis is not the reason that far-right populist parties are now making gains here. That has more to do with the anxiety that some have about globalisation and modernity.” </s> Berliners will go to the polls on Sunday to vote in a state parliamentary election that could deal another blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The voting in Berlin, the last state election this year, will elect members to the 149-seat state parliament of Berlin.

Incumbent Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) will lead to the polls his "grand coalition" of SPD and the local branch of Merkel’s CDU.

The most recent polls, published by ZDF and the Berliner Zeitung on Thursday, put the center-left SPD in the lead with 23-24 percent of votes.

Merkel’s center-right CDU is expected to poll 17-18 percent of votes, followed by the Greens with 15-17 percent and the far-left Linke with 14.5-15 percent.

The ruling Christian Democrats suffered a humiliating defeat in the chancellor’s home state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in early September when they were beaten into third place by the far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD).

The anti-migrant AfD gained prominence across the country amid concerns over the federal government’s open-arms policy on refugees. It is expected to gain 13-14 percent in the Berlin legislature.

According to the Berliner Zeitung, Berlin’s SPD-CDU coalition looks set to lose its majority in the parliament. The next legislature will likely be a so-called red-red-green coalition of SPD, Linke and the Greens. </s> BERLIN (AP) — Germany's governing parties lost significant support in a state election Sunday that was marked by discontent with infighting in Chancellor Angela Merkel's national government and prompted calls for her administration to get its act together quickly.

Projections showed Merkel's conservatives heading for an extremely lackluster win in the vote for the central Hesse region's state legislature. Her center-left governing partners were on course for a dismal result, running neck-and-neck with the Greens for second place.

Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union was defending its 19-year hold on Hesse, previously a stronghold of the center-left Social Democrats, the chancellor's federal coalition partners in Berlin.

There was widespread pre-election speculation that a disastrous result for either or both parties could further destabilize the national government, prompting calls for the Social Democrats to walk out and possibly endangering Merkel's own position.

Andrea Nahles, the Social Democrats' leader, said that "the state of the government is unacceptable."

She said her party would insist on Merkel's governing coalition agreeing on "a clear, binding timetable" for implementing projects, and that how that is implemented ahead of an already-agreed midterm review next fall will show "whether we are still in the right place in this government."

Hesse's conservative governor, Volker Bouffier, told supporters that "the message this evening to the parties in the government in Berlin is clear: people want less argument, more objectivity, more solutions." Merkel's chief of staff, Helge Braun, said that the national government must now pull together and "show we are solving the problems that really move people."

Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and partial counting, gave the CDU 27-28 percent support and the center-left Social Democrats about 20 percent. When Hesse last elected its state legislature in 2013 — on the same day that Merkel was triumphantly elected to a third term as chancellor — they won 38.3 and 30.7 percent, respectively. That would be the worst result in the region for the Social Democrats since World War II.

There were gains for the Greens, who were roughly level with Social Democrats at nearly 20 percent — compared with 11.1 percent five years ago. And the far-right Alternative for Germany was on course to enter the last of Germany's 16 state parliaments with more than 12 percent.

The pro-business Free Democrats were seen winning above 7 percent and the Left Party around 6.5 percent.

Voters have appeared generally satisfied with Bouffier's outgoing state government. It was the first coalition between the CDU and the traditionally left-leaning Greens to last a full parliamentary term, and an unexpectedly harmonious alliance.

But only the Greens, who are in opposition nationally, benefited at the polls.

The projections left uncertain whether Bouffier's outgoing coalition would keep its parliamentary majority, and exactly what other combinations might be possible.

The election campaign in prosperous Hesse, which includes Germany's financial center of Frankfurt, has been largely overshadowed by the woes of a federal coalition that has been in office only since March. The state is home to 6.2 million of Germany's 82 million people.

Two weeks ago, two of the federal governing parties in Merkel's "grand coalition" of what have traditionally been Germany's strongest political forces — the Christian Social Union, the Bavaria-only sister to Merkel's CDU, and the Social Democrats — were battered in a state election in neighboring Bavaria.

The Social Democrats only reluctantly entered Merkel's fourth-term national government in March, and many are dismayed by what has happened since.

The government has been through two major crises, first over whether to turn back small numbers of migrants at the German-Austrian border and then over what to do with the head of Germany's domestic intelligence service after he was accused of downplaying far-right violence against migrants. It has failed to convince voters that it's achieving much on other matters. </s> Angela Merkel has told her Christian Democratic Party (CDU) that she will not run for re-election as its chairwoman in December. Her decision is said to have come following heavy losses in regional elections for her party. A regional election in the German state of Hesse saw voters fleeing to the left and right of the party. The left-wing Greens and right-wing, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) saw their share of the vote increase dramatically.

However, the CDU got 27 percent of the vote, which was down 11.3 percent since the last election in 2013. This also marked the worst result for the party since 1962. This political blow is said to have threatened the governing coalition's solidarity. Mrs Merkel is one of the CDU's longest-serving chairpersons, after took on the role in 2000.

She has also led Germany as chancellor since 2005. "She will not stand again for the chairmanship of her party," A senior party source within the Christian Democratic Union told The Telegraph. This came a day after voters in the Hesse state punished her party in a regional poll. There are calls for The Social Democratic Party of Germany to abandon its coalition CDU, according to NBC.

The loss in votes is said to be being blamed on the government joining forces with the leading party instead of than staying in opposition as it had previously promised supporters. The party's leader Andrea Nahles is to present an "action plan" on Monday addressing concerns. The euro fell shortly after Mrs Merkel's announcement emerged, according to Bloomberg. </s> German voters delivered another slap in the face to Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, handing her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) its worst-ever result in Berlin’s city-state election.

With the migration crisis dominating German politics, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) enjoyed its 10th consecutive state election win, entering the Berlin city-state parliament with 15 per cent support, according to exit polls.

The result means the outgoing Social Democratic Party (SPD) mayor Michael Müller is likely to form a three-way centre-left coalition with Green and Linke (left) parties.

The Berlin poll, Germany’s last state election for 2016, saw a high turnout of 66 per cent, leading to an hour-long wait at some polling stations. After a campaign dominated by social issues, in particular a squeeze on housing and public services, the German capital’s struggle with the migration crisis was the dominant theme.

“We managed it, we have a mandate to form a new government,” said Mr Müller.

In truth it was a bad evening for Germany’s two big parties, with SPD and CDU losing some 5 per cent support each to finish with 23 and 18 per cent, according to exit polls.

SPD federal leader Sigmar Gabriel said the most important signal was that the German capital would remain a city of social inclusion and that the “vast majority were not receptive to far-right rallying cries”.

But jubilant AfD leaders, including the party’s top candidate for Berlin Georg Pazderski, said they were confident they had found a winning election formula – tapping into public concern over migration and the consequences for German domestic security.

“The trend is clear: the CDU and SPD are losing and falling to historic levels, while we are winning,” said Dr Beatrix von Storch, AfD head in Berlin.

The other big winner in the capital was the Linke Party, gaining almost 5 percentage points to about 16 per cent, finishing neck and neck with the Greens.

With 3.6 million citizens and 2.5 million voters, the Berlin capital carries little political weight in the grander scheme of German federal politics.

But Sunday’s result had symbolic value with the likely ejection of the CDU from power as the far-right AfD entered yet another state parliament with double-digit support.

Second, Berlin voters may have triggered a political premiere in Germany if the AfD-related election arithmetic forces outgoing SPD mayor Müller to seek a three-way alliance with the Greens and Linke.

The Berlin poll ends this year’s regional polls – and a bad run for Dr Merkel’s CDU.

Two weeks ago it finished third behind the AfD in her eastern political homeland. Worryingly for her: the largest bloc of defecting CDU voters – roughly 32,000 – departed to the far-right AfD.

“The AfD is not a party with a programme but one that pushes protest, and all parties are suffering as a result,” said Prof Monika Grütters, a CDU politician in Berlin and federal culture minister in Dr Merkel’s government.

At Monday morning postmortem sessions, the Berlin result will step up pressure on Dr Merkel to win back public confidence over her migration strategy.

But the election calendar for Germany’s 16 federal states means she has only a short window of opportunity in which to do so. Three further state elections loom in 2017, including a crucial poll in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

That poll is due in May, four months before federal elections, but NRW’s population of 18 million means it is unlikely much political business will be done from then on in the last month’s of Dr Merkel’s third term.

While the chancellor has, until recently, been a highly popular federal leader, her party has been squeezed in the last three years since the foundation of the AfD.

The CDU and its Bavarian CSU allies have finished first in just half of Germany’s last cycle of 16 federal state polls. If the CDU is ejected as junior grand coalition partner in the Berlin city-state government, Dr Merkel’s alliance holds power in just six of 16 federal states.

On paper, the Berlin result changes nothing for Dr Merkel’s own grand coalition in the Bundestag. But it tips the law-making balance of power even further away from the German chancellor and her CDU in the upper house, the Bundesrat, where the federal states meet. </s> Though roller-coaster elections have recently become the norm in established democracies (witness France’s recent whirlwind campaign), Germany appears determined to be an exception. As her party clinched yet another key regional election, Chancellor Angela Merkel is close to establishing her dominance in the September general election well ahead of time.

Former European Parliament President Martin Schulz created a hint of an intrigue in January when he decided to run against Merkel as the top candidate of SPD, the Social Democratic Party that is now the junior coalition partner of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU). It seemed briefly that someone of his caliber, conviction and campaigning skill could present a credible alternative; the SPD even topped the CDU in some polls, prompting editorials wondering if Germans were tired of Merkel and the chancellor herself was tired of campaigning — this is, after all, her fourth run as her party’s lead candidate. Thanks to the “Schulz effect,” the SPD elected him its leader with an unprecedented 100 per cent of the vote, bestowing on him the nickname “100 per cent Schulz.”

When it came to winning actual elections, though, the CDU has proved a tougher rival than Social Democrats expected. First, it won convincingly in Saarland in March after scaring voters with the possibility of an SPD alliance with more radical leftist forces. And on Sunday, it triumphed in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, where the SPD had ruled in coalition with the Greens and a party representing the state’s Danish minority. Merkel’s party improved on its 2012 result, while the Social Democrats performed worse — and lost the state after 12 years as the ruling party. The CDU will govern the state now, likely with the liberal Free Democratic Party and the Greens, kicking the SPD out.

It’s a tribute to Merkel’s political skill that it’s not quite clear to outside observers how she gets these victories. She appears to practice some kind of highly effective political zen.

Both in Saarland and in Schleswig-Holstein, polls showed the main parties running neck and neck just weeks before voting day. Then the SPD made a tiny misstep that didn’t appear life-threatening. In Saarland, its leader showed perhaps too much enthusiasm for kicking the CDU out of government, even if it meant a riskier coalition. In Schleswig-Holstein, the state’s Social Democrat prime minister, Torsten Albig, gave an interview to celebrity magazine Bunte, going into some details about the breakup of his marriage. It was widely seen as the wrong venue for a politician to vent on personal matters, and Albig’s description of his ex-wife as someone too caught up in mothering and housekeeping rubbed women voters the wrong way. It also irritated Albig’s coalition partners. The SPD can blame the state prime minister for being too complacent and tone-deaf to stave off defeat. But then, the CDU could have stumbled too but didn’t, playing calmly through the endgame for the second time in a row.

“I am hellishly annoyed,” Schulz said of the defeat. “It gets under the skin.” That’s nothing, however, to what he will feel a week from now if the SPD doesn’t come first in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. The Social Democrats crushed the CDU 39 to 26 per cent in the 2012 election, and they run the state in a comfortable coalition with the Greens. Until recently, they enjoyed hefty poll leads. The SPD state prime minister, Hannelore Kraft, is one of the party’s federal leaders and a popular politician on a federal level; she is on her second term, and she has far more political weight and cachet with voters than her CDU rival, Armin Laschet — but lately, he’s been gaining and she’s been losing poll support. Again, the CDU has snuck up on the SPD, and the election will be closer than the 2012 one. Merkel’s party even stands a reasonable chance of winning.

The quiet CDU resurgence despite the party’s lack of flashy campaigning tactics means the Christian Democrats have something going for them that’s hard to overcome even if one doesn’t make mistakes. That something is the quiet attraction of Merkel. She has sat out the “Schulz effect,” and the CDU now has a clear lead in the national election race. While in February and March, many observers wrote her off as a spent force, no one doubts her competence and ability to keep the German economy growing in adverse circumstances. There has to be a strong reason for German voters to trade her for somebody else. Schulz hasn’t hit on such a reason. As for the smaller parties, there’s less and less of a chance of a strong showing by anti-immigrant or far-left forces. Germans see how insecure other European nations feel, and they lean toward the stability of Merkel’s orderly, subdued confidence.

In the last televised debate before losing the French presidential election, nationalist candidate Marine Le Pen quipped that France would be ruled by a woman in any case — either by her or by Merkel. The German chancellor’s presence is clearly felt even in those elections in which she is not running, both inside and outside Germany. That is not something German voters are likely to squander. It has been during Merkel’s long tenure that Germany has benefited greatly from being part of the European Union and the euro zone, and giving up leadership in such useful organizations just to shake things up a little is not the German way. </s> DUESSELDORF, Germany, May 14 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives defeated the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) in a key state election on Sunday, exit polls showed, boosting their hopes of retaining power in September's national vote.

The Christian Democrats (CDU) saw a strong surge of support in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), which is home to one in five German voters and has often been a national trend-setter in elections.

The CDU won 34.5 percent, up from 26.3 percent in 2012, according to an exit poll on public broadcaster ARD just after polls closed.

The SPD, which has ruled NRW for most of the past half century, fell to 30.5 percent from 39.1 percent. It was the third straight state defeat for the SPD since March, casting a shadow over their once bright hopes of denying Merkel a fourth four-year term in the national election on Sept. 24.

It was not clear whether the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), the CDU's preferred partners projected to win 12 percent, had enough votes for the two allies to form a majority in the state.

What was clear is that the ruling SPD-Greens coalition fell far short of a majority as the Greens won about 6 percent, down from 11.3 percent in 2012. The nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has no coalition allies, won 7.5 percent.

"This is a great day for North Rhine-Westphalia," said local CDU leader Armin Laschet, who will most likely become state premier. "We accomplished our two goals: defeating the SPD-Greens coalition and becoming the strongest party in the state."

SPD state premier Hannelore Kraft quickly conceded defeat and said she would stand down as her party's local leader.

"It's sad we lost so many districts. I take personal responsibility for this defeat ...," she said.

The SPD's national leader and its candidate for chancellor in the September election, Martin Schulz, was equally gloomy.

"This is a difficult day for the SPD and a difficult day for me personally. It´s my home state where we suffered a bitter defeat. We lost an important state election," he told reporters.

Merkel, whose re-election hopes earlier this year seemed to be uncertain due to the initial popularity of Schulz when he took over the SPD leadership, managed to revive her fortunes over the last two months with a victory in Saarland on March 26 and an upset defeat of the ruling SPD in Schleswig-Holstein.

The CDU unseated the SPD in NRW in May 2005, prompting a snap federal election. The conservatives won the national election, giving Merkel her first term as chancellor.

The SPD has ruled NRW for 46 of the last 51 years. The CDU only ruled in NRW for five years during that half century, from 2005 until 2010. (Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Gareth Jones) </s> BERLIN — Germany’s governing parties lost significant support in a state election Sunday that was marked by discontent with infighting in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s national government and prompted calls for her administration to get its act together quickly.

Projections showed Merkel’s conservatives heading for an extremely lackluster win in the vote for the central Hesse region’s state legislature. Her center-left governing partners were on course for a dismal result, running neck-and-neck with the Greens for second place.

Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union was defending its 19-year hold on Hesse, previously a stronghold of the center-left Social Democrats, the chancellor’s federal coalition partners in Berlin.

There was widespread pre-election speculation that a disastrous result for either or both parties could further destabilize the national government, prompting calls for the Social Democrats to walk out and possibly endangering Merkel’s own position.

Andrea Nahles, the Social Democrats’ leader, said that “the state of the government is unacceptable.”

Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and partial counting, gave the CDU 27-28 percent support and the center-left Social Democrats about 20 percent. When Hesse last elected its state legislature in 2013 they won 38.3 and 30.7 percent, respectively.

There were gains for the Greens, who were roughly level with Social Democrats at nearly 20 percent. And the far-right Alternative for Germany was on course to take more than 12 percent.

Geir Moulson is an Associated Press writer.
Voters in the German state of Hesse go to the polls to elect a new legislature. The election is widely considered a test for Angela Merkel's ruling CDU–SPD coalition.