Dramatic losses suffered by the ruling Christian Social Union (CSU) in state elections Sunday in Bavaria have ramifications well beyond the borders of Germany's largest state, DPA reported. The sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) saw its decades-old absolute majority melt away as voters defected to smaller parties. A swing of nearly 18 percentage points saw the party slump to around 43.5 per cent of the vote in its worst performance in the staunchly Catholic state since 1954. The shockwaves reached as far as Berlin, where Merkel rules in an uneasy grand coalition with the left-of-centre Social Democrats (SPD). Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has been picked by the SPD to challenge Merkel for the chancellorship, said the vote had far-reaching implications. "We are not talking about an election result," he said, "but about an earthquake that has been unleashed by this election in Bavaria." But he forgot to mention that his party's own performance of just over 18 per cent was also its worst-ever showing in the prosperous state of laptops and lederhosen. "The people have shown that they want a CSU-led government, but that they do not want the CSU to govern Bavaria alone," said Prime Minister Guenther Beckstein, who was elected last year after a party revolt ended the career of longtime party leader Edmund Stoiber.
