Germany .. Merkel's party suffers a heavy loss in two major state elections

The party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a heavy loss in elections held yesterday in two major states, "Baden-Wuerttemberg" and "Ryland Waltz" in the west of the country, due to the failure to manage the Corona pandemic crisis and the repercussions of a major financial scandal.

The results of the latest polls conducted by the German TV network, before the polls closed, showed that Merkel's "Christian Democratic Union" only got 23% of the vote in "Baden-Württemberg", compared to 27% 5 years ago.

The party won about 26% of the votes in the state of "Rheland Palatinate", compared to about 32% in 2016, according to the German television network.

Opinion polls conducted by the State Public Broadcasting Corporation yesterday evening showed that the Green Party won the elections for the state parliament of Baden-Wuerttemberg (32%), and the Social Democrats won the elections for the Parliament of the State of Rayland-Palatinate (34.7%).

tough times

The electoral setback for the German Chancellor’s party came half a year before the country's legislative elections. Die Welt newspaper wrote that it was a “difficult time” for the CDU, while the weekly Der Spiegel magazine reported an “electoral defeat”.

The disclosure has weakened successively since last February about a financial scandal known as the "masks case," as "Deutsche Welle" reported that the German judiciary is investigating the file of the involvement of 3 MPs in the case of receiving money in exchange for arranging purchase deals for masks, in addition to the growing criticism. The ruling coalition led by Merkel's party regarding its management of the Corona crisis, due to the slow pace of the vaccination campaign with the Corona virus vaccine, as a result of lack of supplies and excessive bureaucracy.

The CDU is experiencing a "most dangerous crisis" since the "black boxes" scandal that caused the downfall of former chancellor Helmut Kohl in the late 1990s, according to many commentators.

Suspicions of MPs charging commissions on contracts to buy masks when the outbreak of the Corona pandemic began, a severe blow to the image of the ruling majority in Germany.

The Secretary-General of the Christian Democratic Union, Paul Zimiak, admitted Sunday evening that the masks scandal "affected a lot" on the election results, and the official promised "zero tolerance" towards people who committed misappropriation of money and "get richer during the health crisis".