GERMANY:Half a century of single-party rule has ended in Bavaria after the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) ended state elections last night with their worst result in memory.
The CSU's disastrous result - down 17 points on the last state election - could prompt a party leadership battle just 18 months after the last: a struggle that could unsettle Chancellor Merkel's conservative camp a year before Germany's general election.
Europe's longest-ruling party, the CSU transformed Germany's largest state from an agrarian backwater to an economic powerhouse, making it as much a part of the strong Bavarian regional identity as lederhosen and the Oktoberfest.
Used to election results of more than 50 per cent, Bavarian voters defected in record numbers to smaller parties yesterday in a vote of no confidence in the CSU's ageing leaders and their vision - or lack thereof - for Germany's largest and wealthiest federal state.
"This result is a bit of a shock," said a clearly shaken Günter Beckstein, Bavaria's state premier, in the understatement of the evening. "The people have shown that they want a CSU-led government but that they do not want the CSU to govern Bavaria alone."
Analysts criticised Mr Beckstein and party leader Erwin Huber for never finding a key election issue, promising instead more of the same stability and prosperity to which voters in the largely Catholic state have become accustomed.
Today the CSU begins the unaccustomed and humiliating search for a coalition partner.
A likely coalition partner is the liberal Free Democrats: the party made its debut in Bavaria yesterday, mustering 7.5 per cent to return to the Bavarian state parliament after 14 years. Another coalition option is the conservative Free Voters, a regional party that won 10 per cent.
The Greens got 9.5 per cent of the vote while the new Left Party failed to clear the 5 per cent hurdle to parliament.
It is a humiliating defeat for Mr Beckstein and Mr Huber after toppling predecessor Edmund Stoiber last year.
Mr Stoiber had ruled since 1993 and led the CSU to a record 61 per cent in 2004.
Party members were nostalgic for that era as they came to terms with the party's worst result since 1954.
"The idea that the CSU and Bavaria are one and the same thing doesn't work any more," said Florian Hartleb, political scientist at the University of Chemnitz.
German voters behave differently in state and federal elections but the slump in support in Munich will cause concern in Berlin. The CSU's traditionally strong showing in Bavaria helped Angela Merkel to power in 2005 with a razor-thin poll lead. Social Democrat foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the vote had far-reaching implications for next year's general election, when he will challenge Dr Merkel for the chancellorship.
