The center-right Christian Democratic Union gave way 10 points in the states of Saarland and Thuringia and could now be unsettled by a left-wing coalition.

In both states, opposition parties gained ground, with experts pointing to voter frustration and low turnout as possible reasons.

"This is a wake-up call for everyone in the Conservatives who had believed that an election victory on Sept. 27 was a given," Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy head of the Conservatives' parliamentary group, told Bavarian Radio.

Despite calls for a strategy change, Merkel Monday insisted that the setbacks in Saarland, a state bordering France, and Thuringia, in eastern Germany, did not mean a turnaround before the Sept. 27 national elections.

"We have every possibility of winning the federal election and then, as the big major party of the center, forming a government with the Free Democrats," the chancellor told reporters Monday in Berlin.

In Saxony, voters confirmed Merkel's CDU as the strongest party, with the opposition Free Democrats, Merkel's favored coalition partner, coming in a strong fourth. The far-left Left Party, an alliance of disgruntled Social Democrats and former East German Communists, became the second-biggest force in Saxony.

In a major surprise, the Left Party in Saarland stormed from being virtually non-existent in daily politics to a major force in the upcoming coalition talks. Led by the charismatic and controversial Oskar Lafontaine, once a candidate for chancellor for the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, the Left Party snatched 20.6 percent of the vote, compared with 2.3 percent in 2004.

The SPD remained stable in all states, which might translate into a faint bit of hope for a turnaround before next month's elections. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Merkel's challenger from the SPD, said the results meant that the elections remain open.

"Two things are clear: there have been dramatic losses for the Conservatives and there is no desire for a Conservative-FDP coalition," Steinmeier, who is also Germany's foreign minister, told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

Merkel is more popular than Steinmeier, but the CDU has not managed to turn that popularity edge into voter support. Germans vote for a party, and not for the chancellor.

Critics have said Merkel should switch to more aggressive campaigning. This year's campaign has been very quiet if not dull -- the CDU and the SPD are governing the country in a grand coalition, an unlikely team-up of two traditional rivals. Despite the setbacks this past weekend, Merkel said she won't change her campaign style.

"I won't think in terms of camps but rather try to win over people," she said Monday. "That's why I'm not going to become more aggressive, I'll focus on getting better arguments."

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