Berlin, February 21: Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) led by Chancellor Angela Merkel has suffered a huge political defeat in a state election in the northern city of Hamburg.
The chief electoral officer stated that the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) won with nearly 48.4 percent of the vote in the northern city state, a Media correspondent reported.
Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats managed to obtain just 21.9 percent in the regional election.
The result bodes ill for Merkel, whose political support in Germany’s second largest city is dwindling as her party struggles to maintain its grip on power ahead of six more crucial state elections this year.
The result also puts an end to nearly a decade-long reign of Christian Democrats in Hamburg, and will enable the SPD’s leader Olaf Scholz to take over as city mayor from CDU incumbent Christoph Ahlhaus.
The CDU will have to fight an uphill battle in trying to pass their legislations in the federal upper house in Berlin, or Bundesrat, since they have lost three seats in the German assembly.
Analysts say the CDU was routed mainly because Ahlhaus was deeply unpopular and his poor campaign failed to resonate well with voters.
Some analysts also attribute SPD’s victory to Scholz resounding performance in his campaign, which was largely focused on the economic issues.
“This is a painful day for the CDU in Hamburg,” said outgoing CDU mayor Ahlhaus, adding that the result was a “bitter defeat.”
On the other hand, the SPD Chairman Sigmar Gabriel hailed his party’s victory, saying that “this was a historic result, not just for us, but also for others.”
The election was the first of seven state polls this year, with the most important in southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg on March 27, where the opposition SPD hopes to end almost 60 years of CDU control.
In Germany’s general election in 2009, Merkel threw out former coalition ally SPD to form a CDU-FDP coalition with business Free Democrats.
——–Agencies