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Merkel's CDU trounces SPD in state election: exit poll
AFP - Monday, January 19
BERLIN (AFP) - - Angela Merkel's conservative CDU trounced the centre-left SPD in a state vote Sunday, exit polls indicated, kicking off a super election year forecast to give the German chancellor a second term.
In the election in the western state of Hesse, home to financial hub Frankfurt, the CDU scored 37.4 percent, up 0.6 percentage points from the last vote in 2008, while the SPD -- Merkel's coalition partners at federal level -- slumped 13.2 points to 23.5 percent, the exit polls showed.
The liberal Free Democrats (FDP), the CDU's preferred coalition partners both in Hesse and at national level, saw the biggest increase in their share of the vote, soaring between seven and eight points to around 16-17 percent, the polls given on public television showed.
The Greens also saw a strong increase, rising 6.4 percent to 13.9 percent, while the hard-left Die Linke was unchanged at 5.1 percent, just clearing the five percent hurdle needed to gain seats in Hesse's parliament.
The conservatives and the SPD have been bound together at the national level in a fractious "grand coalition" since 2005 and are now together grappling with the country's worst postwar recession.
Despite criticism of Merkel's initially tentative reaction to the crippling slowdown, the CDU does not appear to be paying the price with voters, thanks largely to internal squabbling among the Social Democrats.
The Hesse election was the first of 16 votes this year in Europe's biggest economy, with votes taking place at regional, state and European level, culminating in general elections on September 27.
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Supporters of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) react after exit polls of the state vote in Hesse, western Germany, were published in Wiesbaden. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU with Hesse's top candidate Roland Koch trounced the centre-left SPD in the vote, exit polls indicated, kicking off a super election year forecast to give her a second term.
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