Merkel’s Party Wins Saarland State in Show of Crisis Backing
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party won a regional ballot in the western state of Saarland, the first electoral test of her crisis-fighting policy since she persuaded European leaders into a pact to limit budget deficits.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats are set to return to power in Saarland, a former coal-and-steel state that borders Luxembourg and France, at the head of a so-called grand coalition with the main opposition Social Democrats after yesterday’s election. Her Free Democratic Party ally crashed out of the state assembly after taking its worst share of the vote in more than 50 years.