Scholz's Social Dems seen winning election in German state

Exit polls indicate that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats are headed for a clear election win in a western state that its conservative rivals have led since 1999

BERLIN -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left Social Democrats appeared headed for a clear election win Sunday in a western state that its conservative rivals have led since 1999, according to exit polls, in the first test at the ballot box since Scholz's national government took office in December.

Social Democrat Anke Rehlinger was on course to become the new governor of Saarland, a region on the French border that is one of Germany's smallest states, with nearly 1 million people. Exit polls for ARD and ZDF television after Sunday's election for the state legislature put support for the Social Democrats at 43-44%, well ahead of the center-right Christian Democratic Union's 27.5% of the vote.

It's not clear that Rehlinger's expected success has much to do with an eventful first 100 days for Scholz's three-party national coalition, during which Russia's war in Ukraine prompted the chancellor to upend German defense policy and Germany has welcomed large numbers of refugees. The country also is grappling with a persistent wave of coronavirus infections, recently seeing over 200,000 new cases on many days.

All the same, it was the first of three state elections within two months — all in regions currently led by governors from the CDU, the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel — that will help set the political tone for the coming year. The most important vote, on May 15, is in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.