Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right bloc suffered another humilating defeat in a regional election in Germany's poorest state, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, on Sunday with both her conservatives and her Free Democrat allies losing support, Reuters reported. Exit polls by the ARD network showed Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) falling to 24 percent from the 28.8 percent it won in the last vote in there in 2006. The Free Democrats (FDP) were an opposition party in the state but crashed out of the assembly with 3 percent, down from 9.6 percent in 2006. The euro zone crisis loomed over the campaign ahead of a key vote in the Berlin parliament on euro zone bailout reforms in late September. Merkel had campaigned heavily in the state with nine appearances. It is also home to her constituency. The CDU and FDP have suffered setbacks in six state elections this year and the CDU has lost control of two states it long ruled to the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). -- SPA
