German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's centre-right CDU faces a key regional election on Sunday, the first of several this year in which it hopes to stem the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany. A year after winning national elections, the CDU hopes to snatch first place in Baden-Wuerttemberg back from the Greens, who have won the last two state elections. Merz's party enjoyed large poll leads in the state last year but these have shrunk in recent months. The Greens' lead candidate is Cem Ozdemir, 60, who would become Germany's first state premier of Turkish heritage. Such a result would be "sensational" for the party, he said, and the best it had ever scored in a western German state.

Source: The Local March 08, 2026 15:26 UTC