Journal # Wahlen # Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats lost their absolute majorities in Thüringen # 31.08.2009 20 UTC

With four weeks to go until national elections here in Germany - voters have handed a setback to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives. Polls were held in three of Germany's sixteen federal states on Sunday... Thüringen and Saxony in the east of the country, and the small state of Saarland in the West. Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats lost their absolute majorities in Thüringen and Saarland - and will now struggle to form a government in those two states. Only in Saxony were the CDU able to maintain their share of the vote. The Social Democrats -currently in a Grand Coalition with the conservatives at the national level - are saying the regional ballots show there's still everything to fight for in the national campaign..