Germany: Althusmann 'optimistic' despite CDU loss in Lower Saxony

German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to the press, in Berlin, Monday, alongside Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) leading candidate for Lower Saxony Bernd Althusmann.
The pair commented on Sunday's election results in Lower Saxony, which saw Althusmann and the state's CDU fraction lose out to the SPD.
Merkel commented on the loss, by acknowledging that the party had fallen short of their election goals. Meanwhile, Althusmann claimed he was still "optimistic," in spite of the results. But he also said that his party would "now take the time to look precisely at what went well, what was bad."
"All that glittered was not gold, we know that now," conceded Althusmann.
Speaking about the elections in Austria, which also took place on Sunday, Merkel stressed that the position of the CDU is not as threatened by a populist right-wing party as their partner party Oesterreichische Volkspartei (OVP), who are now being tailed by the far-right Freiheitliche Partei Oesterreichs (FPO).
"Following the Bundestag election, our distance from the second party was much clearer than is the case there [in Austria]. And we do have a challenge in the AfD, but it is still manageable in comparison to the task that the FPO poses there," said Merkel.