Photo Gallery Merkel's Conservatives Suffer State Vote Setback
Hannelore Kraft, leader of the Social Democratic Party in North Rhine-Westphalia, celebrates her victory with a thumbs up. Kraft's party received close to 40 percent of the vote on Sunday and will form a governing coalition with the Green Party.
Hannelore Kraft and top Green Party candidate Silvia Löhrmann embrace as initial results are announced. The pair have led North Rhine-Westphalia since 2010, with Kraft's popularity only rising since then. The Green Party received a respectable 11.3 percent.
Kraft is immensely popular in North Rhine-Westphalia and easily trounced her Christian Democratic challenger Norbert Röttgen, who is also Germany's environment minister. Here, she is picutured with Löhrmann and the lead candidate of the pro-business Free Democrats, Christian Lindner. Lindner's FDP also found success on Sunday, garnering over 8 percent of the vote.
Many see Kraft as a potential chancellor candidate for the Social Democrats. But on Sunday, she said she intends to see through her duties as governor of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Kraft with her husband Udo on Sunday night. The SPD candidate exudes rationality and reliability. Here opponent Röttgen was seen as arrogant.
The dominant showing in North Rhine-Westphalia has been greeted with excitement and relief among SPD supporters. The party has struggled at the ballot box in recent years.
SPD party head Sigmar Gabriel hopes that the party's showing on Sunday can be repeated on the national stage in general elections scheduled for next year.
Working round the clock to count the votes: 13.2 million people were eligible to vote in the North Rhine-Westphalian election. Turnout was just over 50 percent.
Norbert Röttgen, the CDU's top candidate in North Rhine-Westphalia, announced that he would step down as chairperson of the North Rhine-Westphalian branch of the CDU. He intends to hang on to his ministerial position in Berlin.
Röttgen had long been seen as an up-and-comer in the CDU with many believing that he could ultimately succeed Merkel as the party's national head. His showing on Sunday puts a damper on such plans.
CDU supporters show disappointment at the historically poor result. It was the party's lowest showing in the state since World War II.
A gracious loser: CDU candidate Norbert Röttgen congratulates Hannelore Kraft on her victory.
Here, Green Party candidate Sylvia Löhrmann celebrates the result. There is hope that the center-left showing on Sunday could be repeated in general elections next year.
The FDP is the election's other big winner. The party had suffered a string of bitter ballot box defeats as it failed to clear the 5 percent hurdle for representation in state parliament in several regional elections last year. Now, after last Sunday's vote in Schleswig-Holstein, the FDP has won 8 percent or more in two straight elections. Here, FDP lead candidate Christian Lindner.
The Pirate Party too continued their impressive string of successes and now holds seats in four German states. Here, lead Pirate Party candidate Joachim Paul. He promised his party would "deliver."
The nascent Pirate Party managed to win 8 percent of the vote and will now occupy between 16 and 18 seats in the state parliament in Düsseldorf. Here, supporters cheer in support of their candidates' success.
Pirate Party members testing out the chairs in the North Rhine-Westphalian parliament on Sunday.
The far-left Left Party, a group formed out of the remnants of the former East German Communist Party along with leftists in the West, failed to clear the 5 percent hurdle, with only 2.5 percent of votes, and will lose its seats in parliament
