The first of five regional elections in 2026, which took place in the wealthy southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg , has resulted in an unexpected victory for the ecologist Greens . For a long time, Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had been confident that it would be able to win back its former stronghold of Baden-Württemberg from the Greens. That did not happen. In a poll conducted on election day, over 70% of voters in Baden-Wurttemberg said they