Poll setback puts Merkel coalition on back foot

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives were yesterday licking their wounds after strong setbacks in state polls raised doubts about their favoured coalition’s chances of winning a looming general election.

Merkel still seems assured of a second term after the September 27 election, with a double-digit lead in the polls over the rival Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in her unwieldy “grand coalition”.

But her hopes to ditch the SPD after the general election in favour of the pro-business Free Democrats appeared to narrow after the disappointing results of three state elections held on Sunday.