The election results in Brandenburg give Chancellor Scholz a temporary breather

The Social Democrats (SPD), which are in power both in this eastern German state and at the national level, won the Brandenburg Landtag elections on Sunday with a small margin of votes.

In the Brandenburg elections, the SPD managed to overtake the right-wing party “Alternative Germany” (AfD). This gives Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government some breathing room, but there are still questions about the neutral coalition government’s ability to hold on to power until next September’s Bundestag elections. 72.9% of eligible voters participated in the elections in Brandenburg. Such a high number has not been seen in this eastern country since the reunification of Germany.

Detaches from Scholz

In the elections in Brandenburg, the ruling SPD received 30.9% of the vote. 29.2% of voters voted for AfD. In third place with 13.5% of the votes was the newly formed Union Zaara Wagenknecht (BSW), which adopted the anti-immigration rhetoric from the right. 12.1% of voters voted for the Christian Democrats (CDU). Scholz’s coalition partners, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats (FDP), were unable to overcome the 5% barrier needed to enter the Landtag.

The free democrats, who received less than 1% of the vote, suffered a particularly heavy loss.

The SPD has been in power in Brandenburg since 1990, but for the past 11 years Dietmar Voidke has been the prime minister of this country, whose popularity has given the SPD a chance to win. The local party’s decision to distance itself from the Scholz government also contributed to the SPD’s results. The chancellor was not even allowed to participate in SPD campaign events in Brandenburg, even though he was elected to the Bundestag from Potsdam, the country’s administrative center, according to Politico. The SPD also benefited from the decision of its rivals and voters to prevent the AfD from coming first in Brandenburg. The prime minister of neighboring Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, who represents the CDU, made it clear before the election that centre-right voters would be better off voting for the SPD, thus negating an AfD victory. . It is believed that many voters participated in such tactical voting. 75% of SPD voters revealed after the election that they voted for this party to prevent the AfD from winning, Politico reports. Older voters are known to have voted particularly actively for the SPD. “This is an important victory for me, my party and the state of Brandenburg,” Voidke said after the election.

The General Secretary of the SPD, Kevin Kinnert, said that coalition talks are being planned with BSW. “It’s simple math now,”

he told the German media. The SPD and BSW would have 46 out of 88 seats in the new Landtag, according to Deutsche Welle. The AfD will have 30 seats, giving it a so-called blocking minority, allowing the party to block some major decisions. The other parties have refused to cooperate with the AfD, which is considered a far-right party.

Thinking about overthrowing the government

Although Brandenburg is only one of the 16 federal states in Germany, the outcome of these elections could affect the politics of the entire country, according to Deutsche Welle. AfD also succeeded in regional elections in early September. In Thuringia, the anti-immigration party came first, and in Saxony second, only slightly behind the CDU. “We are extremely satisfied with the results,” AfD co-chair Alice Weidel said after the election in Brandenburg. The results of the AfD in Brandenburg have increased by 5.7 percentage points from the previous elections in 2019. As in other parts of Germany, immigration has emerged as the most important issue in Brandenburg. Germany’s economic problems are also discussed.

“The people feel they are not being heard. The Greens at federal and state level need to pay more attention to the reality of the people who live in the east,”

said green co-chair Rikanda Lang. However, the poor results, which have already suffered in several regional elections in a row, have caused particularly large waves for the FDP. For the free democrats who defend right-wing economic policies, the coalition government with the social democrats and the greens, who stand for a more left-wing policy, has been a big test. Cooperation with the Greens is particularly “toxic” for the FDP, said the vice-chairman of the Free Democrats, Wolfgang Kubickis, who has asked the party to leave the coalition again. “Given the current performance, I do not believe that the coalition will last until Christmas,” said the politician. Talks about the FDP’s desire to overtake him will certainly not continue. Scholz’s neutral government, supported by only 20% of voters.

The SPD, on the other hand, is already considering the possibility of not naming Schutz, who is a neutral politician, as a candidate for the post of Chancellor next year. The victory of the SPD in Brandenburg has made it possible to silence these discussions a little. A loss in Brandenburg would have likely hampered Scholz’s hopes of re-applying for the chancellor post, as well as increased pressure to hold early Bundestag elections, “Politico” estimates. Scholz described the party’s results in Brandenburg as excellent.