Early indications are that Merkel will take a thrashing in local elections!

The center-left Social Democrats (SPD) have demonstrated a commanding lead in local elections in the northeastern Baltic state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with voter turnout at low levels.German broadcaster ARD put the SPD at 37 percent, well above the 30.2 percent they received in the last elections in 2006. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), meanwhile, have reportedly dropped from 28.8 percent in 2006 to 24 percent.

Full report from Deutsche Welle, linked here.