Angela Merkel, German chancellor, suffered an electoral setback four weeks before the country’s general election as her Christian Democratic Union lost its absolute majority in two of the 16 states on Sunday. It appeared to have clawed back to power in a third.

Elections in the small western state of Saarland and in the eastern states of Saxony and Thuringia revealed an erosion of the CDU’s influence. But they also failed to deliver the good news its Social Democratic (SPD) rivals had hoped for.