Merz’s Latest Regional Election Test May Produce No Real Winners

Friedrich Merz will have another chance to secure a regional election victory on Sunday after the German chancellor’s conservative party suffered a bruising defeat in a wealthy southwestern state two weeks ago.

Failure to take power in the wine-growing region of Rhineland-Palatine would be a heavy blow for Merz’s Christian Democratic Union. But a defeat for the rival Social Democrats, who have governed the region for 35 years, would be even more painful, compounding the party’s turmoil after its worst-ever result on March 8 in neighboring Baden-Wuerttemberg.