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Rhineland-Palatinate's State Premier and top candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Malu Dreyer (C) and top candidate of Germany's conservative CDU party for state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate Christian Baldauf (L) attend a TV talk panel after exit poll results are published in Mainz, western Germany, at the end of state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate on March 14, 2021. - Germans went to the polls in two key regional elections, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives bracing for a drubbing on anger over a 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 ahead of September 26 general elections -- which will be the first in over 15 years not to feature Merkel. (Photo by ARMANDO BABANI / AFP) (KEYSTONE/AFP/ARMANDO BABANI)