Preliminary results show Greens winners in key German state vote

Germany's Greens have won the state election in the south-western German state of Baden-Württemberg ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), according to preliminary results.

With 30.2% of the vote, the Greens narrowly beat the CDU on 29.7%, according to figures published on the website of the state statistics office early on Monday after all electoral districts had been counted.

In the first of five major regional votes across Germany this year, Merz's centre-right party suffered an embarrassing defeat after a stirring comeback in recent weeks by the Greens, who lead the current coalition with the CDU in the regional government in Stuttgart.

It now appears likely that the Greens and the CDU will again form a coalition government. Green lead candidate Cem Özdemir is expected to become the first German state premier of Turkish heritage.

According to the preliminary result, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came third with 18.8%, its best ever result in a western German state election, although it appeared to have fallen short of its 20% target.

Trailing behind in fourth, the Social Democrats (SPD) - the junior partner in Merz's coalition at the national level - were reeling from their worst ever performance in a German state election, taking just 5.5% of the vote.

At 69.6%, turnout was high in the election, which marked the first vote in Baden-Württemberg since a change to electoral laws lowered the voting age to 16.