国际英语新闻:Merkel's CDU party loses big votes in two German state elections

BERLIN, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party lost substantial votes in the state elections in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, according to official preliminary results from Monday.

In Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Green Party became the strongest party again and achieved a record result of 32.6 percent of votes, putting them in a comfortable position ahead of coalition talks with the CDU, which only got 24.1 percent of votes.

Germany's first Green Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann received first results with "great gratitude and humility" and understood the vote as a "mandate to continue to serve our country."

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) remained the biggest party with only minor losses, reaching 35.7 percent of votes, according to the preliminary results. The CDU, on the other hand, lost 4.1 percentage points and only garnered 27.7 percent.

Minister-President Malu Dreyer had already stressed before the state election in Rhineland-Palatinate that she would seek to renew the three-party coalition between SPD, Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

"It is absolutely clear that I will then sit down very quickly with my party leaders and party colleagues to clarify how we want to govern together in the future," said Dreyer on Sunday after first results were released.

The Green party was the biggest winner in the state election in Rhineland-Palatinate and recorded a 4 percentage-point increase in votes, becoming the third strongest political force behind SPD and CDU, according to the preliminary results.

More than half of Germans, 55 percent, believe that the Green party's good results in both state elections could be a barometer for the upcoming federal elections in September, according to an ongoing survey by the market research institute YouGov.

The election results were "disappointing for the CDU," said CDU party leader Armin Laschet at a press conference on Monday. Markus Soeder, head of the CDU's sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), even said it was "no longer certain" that the conservative CDU/CSU union would provide the next German chancellor.