Germany's conservatives on track to win election in northern state

BERLIN－Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union looked set to win an election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday, a boost to the party of former chancellor Angela Merkel.

An exit poll by infratest dimap put the CDU at 43.5 percent of the vote, up 11.5 percentage points from when Schleswig-Holstein last held a state election in 2017.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centerleft Social Democrats, the main party in Germany's "traffic light" coalition with the environmentalist Greens and liberal Free Democrats, or FDP, meanwhile slumped to 15.9 percent, as it had presented a largely unknown candidate.

The exit poll put the Greens and FDP, which have been in coalition with the CDU in Schleswig-Holstein since 2017, at 18.1 percent and 6.4 percent respectively, meaning the conservatives may be able to form a government there with only one of the two parties.

CDU Secretary-General Mario Czaja said the party will not make a recommendation about which way state premier Daniel Guenther should proceed in deciding on a partner.

With the 48-year-old Guenther clinching another term in office, it could strengthen the role of moderates within the CDU, in contrast to their more right-wing leader Friedrich Merz, CDU sources told Reuters. Polls show that Guenther is the most popular state premier in Germany.

More significant will be elections next week in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, and the CDU are running neck and neck.

A loss by the conservatives in North Rhine-Westphalia, after losing in March in the tiny western state of Saarland, would be a significant blow to the party.

It would also make it easier for Scholz's SPD-Greens-FDP coalition to pass laws in the upper house of the national parliament, where regional elections help to determine the distribution of votes.

Regional issues such as the cost of childcare typically dominate such state elections.

But national issues are also in particular focus given the tectonic shift in German foreign, energy and security policy since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began.

For one, Germany aims to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy to reduce its dependence on Russia as a supplier of oil and gas. Schleswig-Holstein is one of Germany's leading states in wind power generation, with over 3,000 wind turbines.

Agencies Via Xinhua