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German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Rainer Haseloff, prime minister of federal state Saxony-Anhalt | EPA/SEBASTIAN WILLNOW

CDU loses to the Greens in Baden-Württemberg and the SPD in Rhineland-Palatinate, but keeps Saxony-Anhalt.

By Janosch Delcker
BERLIN – Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and her Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners both suffered defeats in Sunday’s regional elections in three German federal states, which were widely viewed as a quasi-referendum on the chancellor’s refugee policy.

According to an Infratest exit poll released by public broadcaster ARD, Merkel’s CDU garnered only around 27.5 percent of the votes in its former CDU stronghold of Baden-Württemberg, the third-largest of Germany’s 16 states. The conservatives were defeated by the  Greens, who took over the state in 2011 and now appear to have won at least 32 percent of the vote.

 The SPD scored an all-time low of 13 percent of Baden-Württtemberg, and immediately blamed their setback there on what deputy party leader Ralf Stegner called “a special situation because of the popularity of state premier Winfried Kretschmann.”

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the incumbent SPD was able to defeat the CDU, reaching a projected 37.5 percent, compared to around 32.5 percent for the CDU.

 As expected, Merkel’s CDU was able to keep power in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, taking approximately 29 percent of the vote, according to exit polls.

In all three states, the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) managed to get into the parliament, becoming the second-strongest party in Saxony Anhalt with 23 percent of the votes, according to the ARD exit poll. AfD leader Frauke Petry said the result reflected “fundamental problems in Germany.”

http://www.politico.eu/a