Angela Merkel's party wins in regional bellwether vote

Angela Merkel's party has won a clear victory in a regional election considered a test of her party's chances in the forthcoming national ballot, when she will seek a fourth term as German chancellor.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) saw off the Social Democrats (SPD) to win almost 41 per cent of the vote in the state of Saarland, in south-west Germany.

The CDU, led by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, nicknamed "mini-Merkel", secured 40.7 per cent of the vote, well clear of the SPD's 29.6 per cent, a result that put party leader Martin Schultz on the defensive.

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"We have made mighty gains, while support for the enemies of democracy has dropped off in ways that no one has expected," Schultz said.

The Left party was set to take 12.9 per cent, Alternative for Germany (AfD) 6.2 per cent and the Greens 4.5 per cent of the votes, short of the five per cent threshold to gain seats in the new parliament, Deutsche Welle reports.

Further indications of the political temperature in Europe's largest economy will come with two state elections in May, says The Guardian