The BBC reports Further Blow for Merkel in Hesse.
The Financial Times says Merkel Coalition Under Pressure After Hesse Reversal.
ZeroHedge reports Merkel’s CDU Suffers Crushing Losses In Hesse Election; Worst Result For SPD In 130 Years.
DW reports Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives eke out win in Hesse election.
Despite a large drop in support, the CDU has won the Hesse state regional poll, giving the chancellor some welcome breathing room.
Breathing Room? Not Quite
CDU plus the greens will barely have a majority, if indeed they even have one.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Merkel leaving Chair of CDU. This will influence many possible EU moves from Syria, Brexit, Italy, France taking EU lead, Russia etc.
It may not be good, depends on who comes next as Chancellor when she goes in 2021.
What odds she goes sooner?
If the SPD is going to save itself, it has to break off the coalition keeping Merkel in power. By keeping the CDU Chancellor in office, they have abdicated their role as the opposition to the CDU, and a good half of their voters have or will leave for a real opposition party, the Greens in this case.
The same thing is happening to the CDU, but the dynamics aren’t as bad because the CDU continues to hold nominal control of the government, but the coalitions with the SPD are also causing the CDU’s voters to leave for AfD.