BERLIN (AP) — The stakes are unusually high for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government as the central state of Hesse votes in a state election this weekend.
Sunday's election has become an important test for Germany's governing parties. It may help determine whether Merkel's unhappy federal coalition in Berlin has a long-term future, and even how much longer Germany's leader of the past 13 years can carry on at the helm of the European Union's largest economy.
Nearly 4.4 million people can vote for the state legislature in Hesse, which includes Germany's financial capital, Frankfurt. Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union is defending its 19-year leadership of the region, long a stronghold of the center-left Social Democrats.
Those parties, traditionally Germany's biggest, form Merkel's national government together with the Christian Social Union.
