Exit polls: Defeats for Angela Merkel's party in 2 German states

Exit polls are pointing to 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.

Exit polls 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.

Amid discontent over a sluggish start to Germany's vaccination drive, and with coronavirus restrictions easing only gradually, Merkel's Union bloc has been hit over the past two weeks by allegations that two lawmakers profited from deals to procure masks early in the coronavirus pandemic.