'Mini-Merkel' increases majority in bellwether German state polls
by Philip Oltermann in Berlin from World news | The Guardian on (#2H404)
Saarland's CDU state premier, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, sees off threat from resurgent Social Democratic party
Angela Merkel appears to have emerged unscathed from her first challenge from a resurgent German left as her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party romped to a surprisingly emphatic victory in state elections in the south-west.
Though Germany's least populous state, state elections in the Saarland region are being treated as an important bellwether ahead of federal elections in September, with some commentators predicting the region could become the first in the old west of the country to be governed by a coalition between the centre-left and the left parties.
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