BERLIN (Reuters) – The party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on Sunday suffered a setback in regional elections, a disappointment to the conservative leader who could damage their chances of forming a center-right government after elections next month.
Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have a comfortable lead in national polls of between 12 to 15 points over his rivals center, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and a weekend poll showed that 87 percent of Germans expected to win a second term.
But the Christian Democrats (CDU), who saw his support fall sharply in final weeks of the campaigns of 2002 and 2005, may be nervous about Sunday's regional results.
In the state of Saarland, on the border with France, and Thuringia, in the former communist east, Christian Democratic leaders (CDU) who have ruled for a decade back have broken down over 10 points compared with 2004, and both could be displaced by leftist coalitions.
third regional voting in the eastern state of Saxony, Merkel's party appeared poised to retain power in a possible coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP).
The CDU is still the strongest party in the three states, but has suffered a significant setback, said Gerd Langguth, a political scientist at the University of Bonn. It shows that the federal election is not a matter over.
There were positive signals for Merkel in the results, including victory in Saxony and the lack of strong progress of the SPD in any of the states, but the risks have increased their leadership.
Any drop in support could jeopardize the chancellor hopes to achieve a center-right government next month with the Democratic Party Free Democrats (FDP) and force it to create another uneasy grand coalition with the SPD.
That would prevent him from promoting key aspects of its policy agenda, including tax cuts and extend the useful period of nuclear power plants in Germany.
FIRST AGREEMENT SPD-Left
In Saarland, a tiny state of 1 million people in the western German Preliminary results gave the SPD on 25 percent of the vote.
Social Democrat group seems well placed to seize power in a three-way coalition with the leftist link, or party Left, Greens and environmentalists. This was the first regional company of the SPD and the Left in the West Country.
In Thuringia, the same company three could be poised to topple Dieter Althaus, a major Merkel's allies in East Germany, but the SPD may be reluctant to become a junior partner of the Left, who received more votes.
(Reporting by Noah Barkin and Madeline Chambers Sarah Marsh; Published in Spanish by Elizabeth Piper and Mark Trevelyan)
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