1041 GMT - German regional election results will make the country's economic weakness more difficult to overcome, ING's Carsten Brzeski says. The results provide another reminder of an increasingly fragmented political landscape, with a win for a right-wing populist party in one state--Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania-- and a win for a left-wing populist party in the other, Berlin. "Years of economic stagnation helped produce that fragmentation. Now the fragmentation will make the stagnation harder to escape," Brzeski says. Chancellor Friedrich Merz felt compelled to speak within minutes of the exit polls after poor results in an attempt to choke off the speculation about his possible resignation that has been building in recent weeks, he says.