The Greens powered past the Social Democrats into second place, increasing their score to around 21%, the projections showed. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOWThe Social Democrats appeared on course for another disastrous result in a state election in Bremen, a longtime stronghold, also held Sunday. Merkel has said she won’t run for a fifth term in the next national election, which isn’t due until 2021, but questions have swirled over whether the government will last that long. As for the other parties in Germany’s parliament, both the pro-business Free Democrats and the Left Party were expected to take about 5.5% support. A number of very small parties were likely to get European Parliament lawmakers, since — unlike in German national elections — parties don’t have to get 5% of the vote to win seats.

Source: thestar May 26, 2019 18:45 UTC