German center-right hopes to hold key state amid flood flap

BERLIN (AP) — The head of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party says he’s hopeful of winning a key state election next month despite a flap over some party members’ response to last year’s devastating flood. The Christian Democratic Union is in opposition at the federal level, but currently leads a coalition government in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, where an election is due on May 15. The party’s environment minister resigned this week after it emerged that she had returned to a holiday in Spain despite the ongoing cleanup operation following the flood last July that claimed dozens of lives in her state. Recent polls indicate a close race between the Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.