German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, turns her head as she listens to the opening address during an EU summit meeting at the Orazi and Curiazi Hall in the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome on Saturday, March 25, 2017. European Union leaders were gathering in Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of their founding treaty and chart a way ahead following the decision of Britain to leave the 28-nation bloc. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
The Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) - Exit polls indicate that Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party has emerged easily as the strongest party from an election in Germany's western Saarland state - an unexpectedly strong performance and a disappointment for her center-left rivals.
The exit polls for ARD and ZDF public television showed Merkel's Christian Democrats polling up to 41 percent in Sunday's election for Saarland's state legislature. The polls had their center-left rivals, the Social Democrats, receiving up to 30 percent of the vote.
Surveys ahead of the election - the first of three state votes scheduled before Merkel seeks a fourth term in a national election in September - suggested that the Social Democrats might be able to form a new coalition with the Left Party, which polled some 13 percent.
The nationalist Alternative for Germany was seen entering the state legislature with 6 percent of the vote.
German Social Democrat chancellor candidate Martin Schulz shoulders a camera for a camera man of a television team at the St. Johanner Market in Saarbruecken, Germany, Friday, March 24, 2017. Schulz is visiting the German state of Saarland as part of the campaign for regional elections there on March 26 . (Oliver Dietze/dpa via AP)
The Associated Press
Saarland's Governor and top candidate of the Christian Democrats, CDU, for the state election Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leaves the polling station after casting her vote in Puettlingen, Germany, Sunday, March 26, 2017. The state election in the western German state of Saarland offers German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives a tough test against their resurgent center-left rivals six months before Merkel seeks a fourth term in a national vote. (Arne Dedert/dpa via AP)
The Associated Press
Top candidate of the Social Democrats, SPD, Anke Rehlinger gestures after casting her vote for Saarland's state election in Nunkirchen, Germany, Sunday, March 26, 2017. The state election in the western German state offers German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives a tough test against their resurgent center-left rivals six months before Merkel seeks a fourth term in a national vote. (Boris Roessler/dpa via AP)
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