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GERMAN voters went to the polls yesterday in tiny Saarland state, where a resurgent center-left hopes to strike a first blow in their battle to topple Chancellor Angela Merkel this year.

Although the state bordering France is home to just 1 million people, its vote half a year before national elections is seen as a test of the Social Democrats’ rising fortunes under new leader Martin Schulz.

The SPD, having long played second fiddle to Merkel in a national right-left grand coalition, has been re-energized since the folksy and plain-spoken Schulz became its chairman in January.

The former president of the European Parliament has lifted party support by 10 percent with promises to help the socially disadvantaged and end Merkel’s almost 12-year reign in September elections.

The “Schulz mania” has seen younger voters flock to the more than 150-year-old workers’ party, which is now polling neck-and-neck at the national level with Merkel’s conservative bloc.

The SPD is currently the CDU’s unhappy junior partner in Saarland and in the national government — and in both cases hopes to grab power by teaming up with other leftist parties.

Even if the CDU comes out ahead in Saarland, the SPD could potentially seek a coalition with the far-left Linke and possibly the ecologist Greens parties — a so-called “red-red-green” alliance.

The same trio is now running Berlin, although policy hurdles remain at the national level.

In Saarland, the latest poll for broadcaster ZDF gave the CDU a clear lead at 37 percent over the SPD’s 32 percent.