Cem Özdemir gains 30.2% of vote in Baden-Württemberg, ahead of CDU, with far-right AfD in third
Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) have stumbled into a busy election year with a defeat to the Greens in a key state poll, as his embattled party struggles to fend off a challenge in other pivotal races from the far right.
The German chancellor’s conservative CDU had enjoyed a double-digit lead in the south-western car production region of Baden-Württemberg just weeks ago but the Greens and their charismatic candidate Cem Özdemir eked out a half-point-margin win in Sunday’s poll with 30.2%.
Merz, who has travelled to Beijing and Washington in the past two weeks to defend German and European interests amid growing global turbulence, called it a “bitter result” and said the onus was on his government to win back voters.
“We will now have to make more substantial progress with the necessary reforms so that we in Germany can emerge from this difficult economic situation,” he told reporters on Monday.
