Merkel party braces for drubbing in German state polls

Merkel party braces for drubbing in German state polls

STUTTGART: Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives were bracing for a rout in two key regional polls yesterday, with voters expected to punish Germany's largest party for a face-mask corruption scandal and a series of pandemic setbacks. The votes for new regional parliaments in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg are seen as a bellwether of the nation's mood ahead of September 26 general elections-which will be the first in over 15 years not to feature Merkel.

Things aren't looking good for the conservatives. Recent surveys have shown that support for Merkel's centre-right CDU/CSU alliance has fallen to a one-year low at around 30 percent as Germans sour on its coronavirus crisis management. The conservatives should brace for "a slap in the face from voters“, said the top-selling Bild daily.

Merkel's centre-right CDU and its Bavarian CSU sister party have been roiled by damaging claims about MPs apparently profiting from face mask deals early on in the pandemic, forcing three lawmakers to step down in recent days. Deepening the conservatives' woes is growing public anger about a sluggish and bureaucratic vaccination campaign, a delayed start to free rapid testing and stubbornly high infection rates despite months of shutdowns.

Germans could perhaps look past the "mask