German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen at a CDU board meeting, in Berlin, yesterday.
Berlin: Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives hope to form a coalition with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens in Schleswig-Holstein after a decisive election victory in the north German state on Sunday.
The FDP been a frequent partner for the conservatives at national level, and Merkel will seek a fourth term in office in federal elections in September for which Sunday's vote strengthened her hand.
"It's clear to me that we need a change in government in Schleswig-Holstein. That's what the people want," Daniel Guenther, the lead candidate of the chancellor's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the state, told broadcaster ARD.
"Now it's up to me to have talks with the FDP and the Greens."
The CDU raised its share of the vote in the state to 32 percent while the Social Democrats (SPD) — her main rival in September — dropped to 27.2 percent, according to a preliminary vote count.
The parties both polled just over 30 percent in the previous election in 2012, which produced a three-way governing coalition led by the SPD and including the Greens and the South Schleswig Party (SSW), which represents the ethnic Danish minority. Guenther said that Merkel, "encouraged us to make a change in government visible" in the state.
