German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffered significant losses in two key states holding regional elections Sunday.
The poll comes six months ahead of national elections that will determine who succeeds the longtime chancellor.
The votes in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, an economic powerhouse region, and in the neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate state are seen as key for testing the national mood before the September 26 general elections, in which Merkel will be absent for the first time in more than 15 years.
Support for Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian conservative ally Christian Social Union has waned with Germans angry at how the coronavirus crisis has been managed. Germans are worried about a possible third wave of coronavirus infections while the vaccine rollout has been slow.
The CDU/CSU reputation has also been damaged by claims that members of parliament from the governing coalition had been profiting from face mask deals, forcing three lawmakers to resign in recent days.
"This is not a good election evening for the CDU," a downbeat-looking Paul Ziemiak, the party's secretary general, told reporters after the exit poll results.
In Baden-Wuerttemberg, the only state with a premier from the left-leaning Green party, exit polls Sunday evening showed the ecologist Greens finishing first, with 31.4% of the vote to CDU’s 23.4%, according to early projections.
"This is a super start to the super election year," said Robert Habeck, co-leader of the Greens, said, according to Reuters.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, exit polls showed the premier’s party, the center-left Social Democrats, leading the CDU with 35.5% of the vote and the CDU with 26.9%.
(VOA)