Germany’s Social Democrats appear to have succeeded in slowing the advance of the far right in the state of Brandenburg. According to initial estimates published in German media, the SPD narrowly won the tight elections held this Sunday in this eastern region where it has governed for three decades.
Thus, according to the Tagesschau polls, the SPD would obtain 31% of the votes; against 30% for the AfD; 12% for the CDU; 12% for the DBS; 5% for the Greens and 3% for Die Linke and 2.7% for the United Civic Movements of Brandenburg/Free Voters.
The ZDF poll gives the SPD 32%; the AfD 29%; the BSW 12%; the CDU 11.5%; the Greens 4.5%; Die Linke 4% and the United Civic Movements of Brandenburg/Free Voters 2.5%.
Voting intention polls give a slight advantage to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), but the Social Democrats have narrowed the gap in what has ultimately been a very close race.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose popularity is low throughout the country, is managing to hold on according to initial results.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany wanted to maintain Brandenburg as a stronghold of support and relied on the state’s premier, Dietmar Woidke, to achieve this. The party has governed the region surrounding Berlin with changing partners since reunification and with the conservatives of the CDU and the Greens since 2019.
This new election comes just three weeks after the AfD’s historic victory in another eastern state, Thuringia, as well as its good results in neighbouring Saxony, where it came second behind the CDU.
In the last Brandenburg state elections in 2019, the SPD won 26.2%, the AfD 23.5%, the CDU 15.6%, the Greens 10.8%, the Left (Linke) 10.7%, the United Brandenburg Civic Movements/Free Voters (BVB/FW) 5% and the liberal FDP 4.1%.
