Three regional elections in Germany on Sunday have dented the standing of Angela Merkel.
Her Christian Democrat (CDU) party lost two of the three states in the elections, according to exit polls.
Political newcomer Alternative for Germany (AfD) picked up votes, but did not receive a governing majority.
The result is widely seen as a rejection of Merkel’s open-door policy on migrants.
The Chancellor, who has been in power since 2005, is in the midst of negotiating a deal between the EU and Turkey to curtail migration. Now it appears she will have to go back to her European partners to get their backing for the deal.
Baden-Wuerttemberg in the southwest had supported the Christian Democrats for more than 50 years until 2011 when the vote brought in a coalition led by the Greens. The Greens have again won the majority – about 33% and the CDU taking 28%.
Another southwest state, Rhineland-Palatinate, returned the Social Democrat (SPD) party with 38% of the vote and giving 33% to the CDU, according to exit polls.
Merkel’s CDU had hoped to win back power in these two former bastions.
Voters in Saxony-Anhalt in former East Germany kept the CDU as the largest party but anti-immigration AfD won 22% of the election. It marks the first time the AfD had become the second-biggest party in any regional state.
