默克爾保守派政黨贏得關鍵州級選舉
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives defeated their center-left rivals in a key state election Sunday in the country's most populous region.
Exit polls showed Merkel's Christian Democratic Union with a strong surge of support in North Rhine-Westphalia, the home state and traditional stronghold of her chief rival, Social Democrat Martin Schulz, who is challenging the German leader in the national election in late September.
Schulz conceded Sunday's loss, saying, "This is a difficult day for the Social Democrats, a difficult day for me personally as well. I come from the state in which we took a really stinging defeat today." He urged his party to focus on the September 24 vote.
The exit polls showed the Christian Democrats winning 34.5 percent of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, home to 17.9 million people, nearly a quarter of the German population, with the Social Democrats at 30.5 percent. Other parties trailed far behind the two leaders.德國總理默克爾的保守派政黨星期天在德國人口最多地區一次關鍵的州級選舉中，擊敗中左對手。
投票站出口民調顯示，默克爾的基民盟在北萊茵-威斯特法倫州的選舉中，獲得強有力支持。該州是她的主要對手、社民黨的馬丁·舒爾茲的家鄉州和傳統的大本營。舒爾茲將在今年9月底的德國大選中挑戰默克爾。
舒爾茲承認星期天的失利，表示“對於社民黨和我本人來說，這是艱難的一天。我來自這個州，今天我們在這裏遭遇了慘痛挫敗”。他敦促其政黨集中精力打好9月24日的選戰。
投票站出口民調顯示，基民盟在北萊茵-威斯特法倫州贏得了百分之34.5的選票，社民黨獲得百分之30.5的選票。該州人口1790萬，佔德國總人口的近四分之一。其他政黨得票率遠遠落在這兩大政黨之後。
