Exit polls point to defeats for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party in 2 state elections

BERLIN (AP) — Projections are pointing to clear defeats for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party in two German state elections. Sunday’s votes for new state legislatures in the southwestern states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate kicked off an electoral marathon that culminates in a national election Sept. 26. The national vote will determine who succeeds Merkel. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union faced a challenging task against two popular state governors from rival parties on Sunday. Projections for ARD and ZDF television indicated that those governors’ parties, the environmentalist Greens in Baden-Wuerttemberg and the center-left Social Democrats in Rhineland-Palatinate, were set to finish well ahead of the CDU.