Germany's Christian Democratic Union headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel has won regional elections in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, defeating their social democratic rivals for the second time this year just five months ahead of the general election.
After winning the vote in the Saarland in February, the conservatives once again demonstrated the failure of the so-called "Schulz effect" to influence voters.
The "Schulz effect" was touted as being a dynamic surge of support for the Social Democrats after that party selected Martin Schulz, the former president of the European Parliament, as its candidate for the chancellorship in the 2017 election.
According to vote projections broadcast on television 90 minutes after the polls closed, the CDU, headed by the politically nearly unknown Daniel Gunther, captured 33 per cent of the votes in Schleswig-Holstein, bordering on Denmark, some 2.5 points more than in the latest regional elections and almost 7 per cent more than the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
The regional vote was seen as an early test for the September 24 general elections, in which the CDU and SPD are the main contenders for the chancellorship.
Meanwhile, the ultra-right AFD party congratulated itself for surpassing - by a few tenths of a percentage point - the 5 per cent minimum threshold for winning seats in the regional parliament, and it will now have a presence in 13 of the 16 regional legislatures in Germany.
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