Germany's CDU bemoans collapse in former Communist East

FILE PHOTO: Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader and top candidate for chancellor Armin Laschet holds a news conference, one day after the German general elections, in Berlin, Germany, September 27, 2021. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU) expressed concern on Monday at the scale of the party's defeat in the former Communist East in Sunday's federal election that marks the end of the rule of Angela Merkel, who grew up in the region.

The CDU had been the dominant political force in the former east for three decades since the party's long-serving leader Helmut Kohl championed reunification in 1990 and promised voters in the deprived region "flourishing landscapes".