CDU takes just 20% of vote, polls show, as it suffers worst result in German port city since second world war
Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) suffered a humiliating defeat in a key German regional election ? something that will make governing all the more difficult for her already shaky coalition.
Exit polls released after polling stations closed suggested the German chancellor's CDU had lost control of Hamburg to the opposition SPD party.
One poll, conducted by the state television channel ZDF, projected that the centre-left SPD was set to win 50% of the vote.
The CDU took just 20%, according to the pollsters ? the worst result for the party in the port city since the second world war.
The dramatic plunge in support for Merkel's party, which polled 42.6% of the vote at the last election in Hamburg in 2008, can be attributed to voter dissatisfaction with the chancellor's handling of the euro crisis as well as problems within her own party at home and particularly in Hamburg.
If the exit polls are right, the SPD could rule Hamburg with an absolute majority ? a relative rarity in Germany, which has a proportional voting system explicitly designed not to give one party or leader too much power.
Merkel will be hoping the result will not be repeated elsewhere. This year has been described as "super election year" in Germany, with a six further states due to go to the polls.
The next big test for her will come at the end of March in the south-western region of Baden-W�rttemberg, where the CDU is in danger of losing power because of fierce arguments over plans for a multibillion-euro station in Stuttgart.
The Hamburg result marks a welcome upturn for the SPD, which has struggled nationally since the former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schr�der dissolved his coalition government with the Greens in 2005.
Although Merkel is likely to remain chancellor until the next national election in 2013, the shift of power in Hamburg, where she had campaigned hard, will make it even more difficult for her federal coalition to pass laws.
This is because, in selecting the make-up of their own regional parliament, the B�rgerschaft, Hamburgers also choose who their state sends to the powerful Bundesrat, Germany's upper house of parliament.
The Bundesrat has to approve about half the legislation that passes through the Bundestag lower house.
In May, the coalition lost its slim majority in the Bundesrat following elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.
Merkel's party, which has been recovering nationally from a plunge in popularity last year, is facing fresh setbacks.
The popular defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, has been embroiled in a plagiarism scandal over his PhD thesis. The Bundesbank chief, Axel Weber, who was seen as a key contender for the top job at the European Central Bank, said he would quit the German central bank ? a decision many have interpreted as a blow to Merkel.
Hamburg, long a leftwing bastion, was ruled by the SPD for 44 years before it lost power to Merkel's CDU 10 years ago.
According to exit poll results, the Green party increased its vote from 9.6% in 2008 to around 11% this time.
The FDP, which rules on a national level with the CDU, also upped its vote slightly from 4.8% to 6%, while the Left party's share of the vote went up from 6.4% to 7%.
The CDU plunged in Hamburg polls after its leader Christoph Ahlhaus, a lawyer, took over from the popular CDU mayor, Ole von Beust, who abruptly quit in July. A CDU coalition with the Greens failed in November, prompting the elections.
Nationally, Merkel's conservatives are at about 36%. The SPD (22%) and their preferred partners, the Greens (20%), are just ahead of the ruling coalition of Merkel's conservatives and their FDP partners (5%) combined.
There had been concerns in Hamburg that a new and complicated voting system which allowed voters to tick up to 20 boxes would bamboozle the electorate.
The local authorities were so worried about confusion that they set up a special voting helpline to offer voters advice on how to correctly fill in their forms.
Around 59% of the 1.3 million Hamburgers eligible to vote did so, according to the state television channel ARD.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/20/angela-merkel-christian-democrats-hamburg-defeat
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