German state election a test for Chancellor Merz

Voters will head to the polls in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a prosperous hub of Germany's flagship auto sector with a population of 11.2 million. The CDU, a year after winning national elections, hopes to snatch first place in Baden-Wuerttemberg back from the Greens, who have won the last two state elections. Merz's party until recently enjoyed large poll leads in the state but these have shrunk in recent months. The most recent survey put the CDU and the Greens in a dead heat on 28 percent.