HAMBURG, Germany, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Center-left Social Democrats have decisively defeated German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats in a Hamburg election, officials said.
In the city-state's election Sunday, the SPD won a landslide victory and gained a majority in Hamburg's Parliament with 48.3 percent of the votes to the Christian Democrats' 21.9 percent, the worst showing for the CDU in Germany's second city since World War II, Der Spiegel reported Monday.
The humiliating defeat in a key German regional election will make governing all the more difficult for Merkel's already shaky coalition, Britain's The Guardian said.
CDU general secretary Hermann Grohe admitted it had been a "serious defeat" and that his party had suffered "great losses."
With a six more German states due to go to the polls this year, Merkel's party could face even more setbacks.
The Hamburg result is a significant victory for the SPD, which has struggled since former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroder dissolved his coalition government with the Greens in 2005, the Guardian said.
