German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was beaten by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the state election of Lower Saxony.
The SPD garnered 37.1 per cent of the total votes, followed by CDU at 34.4 per cent, according to preliminary results broadcast by ARD and ZDF on Sunday, Xinhua reported.
The far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) gained 5.9 per cent of the votes, thus entering the 14th state parliaments in Germany.
The Greens made with 8.8 per cent and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) with 7.2 per cent, while the Left Party had only 4.6 per cent of the vote and will again remain outside the state parliament due to the 5 per cent hurdle.
--IANS
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