Poll: Merkel loses key state

An exit poll indicates Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right alliance has lost control of Germany’s most populous state.

That would strip her national government of its majority in parliament’s upper house.

Today’s state election in North Rhine-Westphalia – the first ballot since Ms Merkel’s second term started in October – has loomed over efforts to tackle the Greek debt crisis.

An ARD television exit poll showed Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats winning 34.5% of the vote and their coalition partners, the Free Democrats, 6.5%.

That would leave them short of a majority in the state legislature in Duesseldorf.

The poll found the opposition Social Democrats would win 34.5%, the Greens 12.5% and the Left Party 6%.