AFP Forum

GERMANY - POLITICS - VOTE - PARTIES
Hesse's top candidate of the Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) Thorsten Schaefer-Guembel attends a press conference one day after the results of the state elections in Hesse (Hessen) at the SPD headquarters in Berlin, on October 29, 2018.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) shed more than 11 points compared with 2013 for a 27 percent score, holding on to a much weakened first place. Meanwhile junior federal coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD) tumbled almost the same amount to 19.8 percent, essentially tied for second place with the ecologist Greens, who almost doubled their result to 19.8 percent.

MARKUS HEINE / AFP