BERLIN, March 8 (Reuters) – Germany’s environmental Greens are set to win a state election in the southern region of Baden-Wuerttemberg, leaving them poised to continue a coalition with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives, initial forecasts showed after polls closed on Sunday.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has made strong gains in recent years, came third, confirming its position as Germany’s main opposition party, even outside its heartland in the former communist eastern states.
The first forecasts on public broadcaster ARD showed the Greens in first place with 32% of the vote, followed by Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) on 29% and the AfD on 17.5%.
Merz’s coalition partners in Berlin, the centre-left Social Democrats were on course for just 5.5% of the vote, confirming the precipitous drop in support seen in recent years but just scraping past the minimum threshold to enter state parliament.
Baden-Wuerttemberg, home to Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Bosch and one of the traditional strongholds of the German car industry, is one of Germany’s most prosperous regions.
But its auto sector and wider economy have been hit hard by increasing competition from China’s surging electric vehicles makers.
After a decade of Green-CDU coalition government in Baden-Wurttemberg, the moderate Green candidate for state premier, Cem Ozdemir is unlikely to make life difficult for Merz in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament that represents the states in Germany’s federal system.
But the result underlines Merz’s struggles to cut through with voters, as promised reforms have stalled and a sluggish economy comes back slowly from two years in recession.
Initially trailing in the race, the Greens overtook the Christian Democrats as the ballot approached and the result is likely to fuel discontent among conservatives already alarmed at the record low approval levels for Merz’s government in Berlin.
The Baden-Wuerttemberg election was the first of five state elections this year, with voters in neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate due to go to the polls on March 22, followed by Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenberg-Vorpommern in September.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Christoph Steitz)
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