Merkel Party Braces For Drubbing In German State Polls By Pauline CURTET with Michelle FITZPATRICK in Frankfurt on March 14 2021 3:11 PM Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives are bracing for a rout in two key regional polls Sunday, with voters expected to punish Germany's largest party for a face-mask corruption scandal and a series of pandemic setbacks. The votes for new regional parliaments in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg are seen as a bellwether of the nation's mood ahead of September 26 general elections -- which will be the first in over 15 years not to feature Merkel. Things aren't looking good for the conservatives. Recent surveys have shown that support for Merkel's centre-right CDU/CSU alliance has fallen to a one-year low at around 30 percent as Germans sour on its coronavirus crisis management.