German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party has won a state election in the traditional heartland of its centre-left rivals, the Impartial Reporter reports.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union won 33% of the vote in the election for the state legislature, with the Social Democrats trailing on 31.2%.
Social Democrat governor Hannelore Kraft’s coalition lost its majority as her junior governing partners, the Greens, took only 6.4%.