With a minimal margin, the Social Democrats finished in first place in the Brandenburg regional elections held on Sunday, ahead of the right-wing party Alternative for Germany. The SPD won 30.9 percent of the vote and the AfD 29.2 percent. It is the only East German state that has been continuously governed by socialists since 1990. According to Politico's analysis, the advance of the AfD could also mean the loss of the German chancellor, the M1 news agency reported.
The crowd gathered in the yard of the headquarters of the Social Democrats in Potsdam greeted the exit poll results published after the polls closed with relieved cheers and applause. According to German public broadcaster ZDF, the SPD won 32 percent of the vote in the state election.
The results of the provincial elections had a shocking effect on the entire German political elite, said the leading analyst of the Brussels-based Bruegel Institute.
"As so many times in history, the social democrats appear to have once again prevented the extremists from coming to power," he said.
There was also great joy in the headquarters of the right-wing AfD. According to the survey, the anti-immigration party became the second largest force in the local legislature in an extremely close race, just a few percentage points behind.
"Don't forget that we had a lot of young supporters in the campaign. We are the party of the future. The SPD and CDU are the past, their time is over," declared the AfD prime ministerial candidate.
The two parties went head-to-head even in the campaign. All this suggests that people want change in Germany
said the correspondent of the public media, who follows the events in Potsdam.
"Compared to the 2019 elections, the AfD has also grown significantly in the state of Brandenburg, and if you look at the national opinion polls, the popularity of the parties forming the federal government is overall lower than the popularity of the CDU, which is the largest opposition force. So the question is how well the federal government parties will hear the voice of the people until next year's Bundestag elections," said Katalin Noll.
The AfD gained strength not only in Brandenburg: at the beginning of September - for the first time in its history - it won a regional election in Thuringia, and came second in a close race in Saxony.
According to the surveys, illegal immigration significantly influenced the voters' decision in both cases, especially after the knife attacks with an Islamist background in recent months.
The results of the provincial elections had a shocking effect on the entire German political elite, said the leading analyst of the Brussels-based Bruegel Institute.
"The current Berlin coalition lost a lot after its two smaller parties in Thuringia did not even get into the state parliament. In a way, it's a protest vote against the federal government, primarily because of uncontrolled immigration," the analyst explained.
In Brandenburg, more voters than usual appeared at the polls already in the afternoon. More than 350,000 people cast their votes by mail, including the Social Democratic German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who lives in Potsdam with his family. He has a lot to lose, as federal elections will be held in Germany in a year's time - reminded the newspaper Politico, which stated in its Friday article that after another provincial defeat, "Scholz could easily meet the fate of American President Joe Biden if his panicked party pushed him aside make room for a candidate who can avoid a collapse at next year's federal election."
Source: M1 News
Cover photo: MTI/AP/Markus Schreiber
