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WORLD NEWS Monday 27 May 2019

Greens triumph as German governing parties perform poorly

By GEIR MOULSON held Sunday. Three further
Associated Press state elections in east-
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s ern Germany await this
governing parties were fall — as does as a previ-
headed for their worst post- ously agreed review of the
World War II showing in a coalition’s work, halfway
nationwide election on through the scheduled par-
Sunday amid discontent liamentary term.
with their stuttering perfor- Merkel has said she won’t
mance over the past year, run for a fifth term in the
with the Greens surging to next national election,
second place in the Euro- which isn’t due until 2021,
pean Parliament vote amid but questions have swirled
increasing concern about over whether the govern-
climate change. ment will last that long.
Projections for ARD and ZDF It took six months to form
public television, based on that government after Ger-
exit polls and partial count- many’s last election, and
ing, put support for Chan- its image was tarnished by
cellor Angela Merkel’s infighting last year.
center-right Union bloc at Green party chairwoman Annalena Baerbock and EU parliament member Sven Giegold celebrate Merkel largely stayed out
around 28% and the Social after the first results in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, May 26, 2019. of this campaign, which
Democrats, their partners in Associated Press was a first test for Annegret
an often-fractious “grand their score to around 21%, to fall short of its showing in ing coalition, following Kramp-Karrenbauer, her
coalition” of what have tra- the projections showed. Germany’s 2017 national long-running speculation successor since December
ditionally been Germany’s That is nearly double their election. that its end could be has- as leader of the Christian
biggest parties, around 10.7% showing in 2014. The party was seen taking tened by poor results Sun- Democratic Union party.
15.5%. Five years ago, they It was an indifferent eve- about 10.5%, up from 7.1% day. Kramp-Karrenbauer told
took 35.4% and 27.3% re- ning for the far-right Alter- five years ago. The Social Democrats ap- supporters in Berlin that “this
spectively. native for Germany, which It wasn’t immediately clear peared on course for an- election result does not do
The Greens powered past celebrated increasing its whether the outcome other disastrous result in a justice to the expectations
the Social Democrats into presence in the European would further destabilize state election in Bremen, a we have of ourselves as a
second place, increasing Parliament but looked set Merkel’s national govern- longtime stronghold, also major party.”q