Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged Monday that her party’s heavy losses in a key regional German vote was a “bitter, painful defeat”, but stressed it had no bearing on her belt-tightening policy in Europe. “The work in Europe is not affected” by the historic defeat suffered by her Christian Democrats (CDU) in Sunday’s snap poll in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Merkel told a news conference. And she insisted that she saw “no conflict between solid budgetary policy and growth” after some attributed the crushing poll result to Merkel’s tough stance on austerity. The poll, in which the CDU took just over 26 percent, its worst ever score in NRW, compared with 39.1 percent for the main Social Democratic Party (SPD) opposition, had more to do with the parties’ main contenders, Merkel said. But the defeat marks a setback for Merkel, 16 months ahead of general elections in which she will seek a third term at the helm of Europe’s top economy at a time of financial turmoil.
