BERLIN (MNI) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that she
does not plan to reshuffle her cabinet, despite her camp’s painful
election defeat in the important state of Baden-Wuerttemberg on Sunday.

“I don’t have the intention” to do that, Merkel said at a press
conference here. “Thus, I can answer that question with ‘No'”, she said.

Merkel’s center-right CDU and the free market oriented FDP on
Sunday lost their majority in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the state where a
large share of the nation’s car and engineering industry is located. The
Green party and the center-left SPD have announced they intend to form a
coalition government there.

Until Sunday’s vote, Baden-Wuerttemberg was a traditional
stronghold of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, having governed there
without interruption since 1953. Thus, yesterday’s loss was a major blow
to Merkel.

–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com

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