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Merkel, who has campaigned hard against her center-left opponents' plans for tax increases, has benefited in the national campaign from Germany's strong economy and low unemployment. That's even more of an advantage in Bavaria, the tradition-minded homeland of retired Pope Benedict XVI and also a high-tech and industrial center, where nearly 9.5 million people were eligible to vote. Its jobless rate is just 3.8 percent, the lowest of any German state and well below the national average of 6.8 percent. Still, the Free Democrats' weakness may be a problem for Merkel. Sunday's outcome opens up the possibility of Merkel supporters switching their votes to the smaller party to ensure it tops 5 percent in the national election, which would weaken her conservatives. "Those who want Angela Merkel must vote for Angela Merkel," Armin Laschet, a deputy leader of the chancellor's party, told ARD television. The Free Democrats "will make it," he added. The smaller party has been a fixture in post-World War II Germany's national Parliament but isn't traditionally strong in Bavaria. National polls show Merkel's conservative bloc of her CDU and the Bavaria-only CSU leading the pack. However, they show her current center-right coalition roughly level with the combined opposition, and holding an advantage of about 10 points over Steinbrueck's over hoped-for alliance of his Social Democrats and the Greens.
That suggests Merkel may need to form a new coalition, perhaps a "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats
-- the combination with which she ran Germany from 2005-9. In Bavaria, a center-right party that's strong locally but not nationally, the Free Voters, took 9 percent of the vote. A new anti-euro party that is running in the national election, Alternative for Germany, didn't field candidates on Sunday.
[Associated
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