BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a regional vote test Sunday, after winning a fourth term with a disappointing showing that has forced her to embark on high-stakes coalition talks.
Three weeks after German voters handed Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union its worst result in decades, the leader of Europe’s biggest economy is locked in another poll battle -- this time, in the region of Lower Saxony.
Latest surveys show the CDU lagging behind the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the state, the fourth most populous in Germany and home of scandal-tainted Volkswagen.
“A victory in Lower Saxony is important for Merkel because it would strengthen her and show that her party can still win state elections,” said Oskar Niedermayer of Berlin’s Free University. Merkel’s rival, SPD leader Martin Schulz is also desperately seeking to top the vote, after suffering a humiliating defeat in the national election. Lower Saxony was forced into a snap vote after the ruling coalition of SPD and the left-leaning Greens collapsed when it lost its wafer-thin majority due to the defection of a single lawmaker. (AFP)