POSTDAM (Germany), Sept 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats narrowly beat the far-right AfD in a state election on Sunday in the formerly communist east, in rare good news for his party.
Scholz’s centre-left SPD won around 31 per cent in the state of Brandenburg against the anti-immigration, pro-Russian Alternative for Germany, which scored about 29 per cent, projections by public broadcasters said.
The result offers a rare moment of respite for Scholz’s embattled coalition government, which has sunk in opinion polls a year ahead of national elections.
The vote in Brandenburg has been closely watched because Scholz’s SPD has ruled there ever since Germany’s 1990 reunification. The chancellor’s own electoral district is in the state capital Potsdam, outside Berlin.
The AfD, which rails against asylum-seekers, multiculturalism, Islam and Scholz’s three-party government, had hoped to replicate its recent electoral success in the east.
Three weeks ago, it stunned the political establishment by winning its first-ever parliamentary vote – in the eastern state of Thuringia – and coming a close second in neighbouring Saxony.
Despite its ballot box success, the AfD is unlikely to take power in any state since all other mainstream parties have so far ruled out entering into a governing alliance with the party.
Brandenburg’s popular SPD state premier Dietmar Woidke had kept his distance during the campaign from party colleague Scholz.
In office for more than a decade, Woidke had also thrown down a challenge to voters, by telling them he would quit if the AfD won.
The AfD, which failed in its aim “to send Woidke into retirement”, nonetheless hailed its strong showing.
Party co-leader Tino Chrupalla said it had “taken gold once and silver twice” in three elections in the east this month.
A visibly relieved Woidke basked in applause by party faithful, celebrating the close win in a race where just weeks ago his party had trailed the AfD in the opinion polls.
The goal, he said, had been to prevent Brandenburg from being marked with a “great, brown stamp”, the colour associated with fascism.
The message appeared to have energised voters, and turnout reached 74 per cent.
In the long run-up to national elections in September 2025, the opposition conservatives of the CDU-CSU alliance last week selected their party leader Friedrich Merz as their top candidate.
But the CDU also took a beating in Brandenburg, winning only around 11 per cent.
This year has also seen the emergence of a second populist party, the left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which won around 12 per cent in Brandenburg. — NNN-AGENCIES
