BERLIN (Sputnik) — On Sunday, Saarland held its regional parliamentary elections. According to preliminary figures, the CDU was backed by 40.7 percent, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) gathered support of 29.6 percent, while Die Linke (The Left) and Alternative for Germany (AfD) parties also passed the electoral threshold with 12.9 percent and 6.2 percent respectively.
"The CDU has demonstrated an outstanding result with 40.7 percent of votes with a significant growth in turnout if to compare with previous election in landtag [which is the region's legislative body] and with a growth in support numbers," Merkel said.
She added that the outcome of the vote was encouraging, but the party should exert efforts to prepare for upcoming elections, namely in such regions as North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, as well as the German parliamentary elections, slated for September 24.
