GERMAN CONSERVATIVES IN TROUBLE A Political Monopoly Ends in Bavaria

The conservative Christian Social Union turned in its worst election result since 1954 in Bavarian state elections on Sunday. The ballot box collapse brings a decades-long political monopoly to an end -- and may call Chancellor Angela Merkel's re-election into question.

In the run up to Sunday's state parliamentary elections in Bavaria, it was clear that the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the party which has dominated the state's political leadership almost since World War II, was in trouble. Nobody, though, expected the result to be quite as bad as it turned out.