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1/27/08

Swissinfo.ch. Germany's Merkel dealt setback in state vote - by Madeleine Chambers

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Germany's Merkel dealt setback in state vote - by Madeleine Chambers

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives suffered heavy losses in an election in the western state of Hesse on Sunday, dealing her a blow ahead of next year's national vote. Long-time Hesse Premier and Merkel ally Roland Koch had run a bitterly divisive campaign advocating crackdowns on foreign criminals which was backed by the chancellor but ultimately backfired. His Christian Democrats (CDU) took 36.6 percent of the vote, down sharply from the 49 percent they scored in the last Hesse election in 2003, and a shade behind the rival Social Democrats (SPD) at 36.9 percent, preliminary results showed

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