Polls opened in the German state of Saarland on Sunday in the first of a trio of state elections that could banish Angela Merkel's junior coalition partners from regional parliaments, weakening her center-right government ahead of next year's federal vote. The Christian Democrat (CDU) chancellor plans to seek a third term in 2013, but will almost certainly be forced to find an alternative partner to the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), who languish at just 4 percent in national polls after a record 14.6 percent showing at the last national election in 2009. The CDU are running neck-and-neck with their main rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD), in Saarland, one of Germany's smallest states with just 1 million inhabitants. The most likely outcome is a “grand coalition” government of the two broadly centrist parties — a result which could be a harbinger of the outcome in next year's federal election. First results of the Saarland poll are due at 1600 GMT. The snap vote in the scenic state on the French border was triggered by parochial infighting in the FDP, which brought down the fragile alliance of CDU, Greens and FDP that had governed for the past two years. The CDU and SPD both scored 34 percent in the latest survey in Saarland, which as seen its traditional heavy industry and mining replaced by automobile plants and light manufacturing. It is also the home of leftist leader and former German finance minister Oskar Lafontaine, whose Left party could score 15 percent. The FDP meanwhile are seen at just 2 percent, well below the 5 percent threshold required to win assembly seats.
