Reactions to the Saar election: tailwind and licking wounds

The SPD victory in Saarland is also celebrated by the party leadership in Berlin. She spoke of a tailwind for the further elections. At the CDU, efforts were made to take the new party leader Merz out of the line of fire.

Smallest area country, smallest state parliament, little significance for federal politics? As the clear winner of the elections, the SPD is trying to take the tailwind from Saarbrücken with it to Berlin.

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil sees a “sensational victory” for his party in the Saar. The SPD now provides half of the 16 prime ministers and also referred to four SPD state leaders in the future. “The Saarland was a first mood test after the federal election.”

General Secretary Kevin Kühnert also spoke of a major election victory for the SPD on ARD. The CDU had failed with a bang. “That gives an incredible tailwind,” he says on ZDF, with a view to the next state elections this year. A new state government will be elected in Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony in 2022. Kühnert spoke of a strong signal, because it was the first change of government at state level in five years.

Kevin Kühnert, SPD General Secretary: “It’s a great election victory for the Saar SPD”

State election in Saarland 6:00 p.m., 27.3.2022

CDU: “A painful result”

For the CDU, the crushing defeat is also a setback for the new party leader Friedrich Merz. Accordingly, the federal CDU is trying to downplay the influence of the new party leadership. “It was a state election that was decided on state political issues,” said deputy party chairman Andreas Jung on ZDF. He spoke of a bitter evening. At the same time, he pointed out that Merz had not been in office for 100 days, and that his values ​​were significantly better in other federal states such as North Rhine-Westphalia. In the election campaign in Saarland, Merz had recently canceled appointments at short notice.

CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja spoke of a bitter evening with a painful result. “It was quite obviously a Saarland election result,” he says. “I don’t currently see any effects on the other federal states.” The election campaign of top candidate Tobias Hans was impressive but not easy, also because of his corona disease.

Greens speak of positive federal influence

The Saarland is traditionally a difficult place for the Greens. The federal chairwoman of the Greens, Ricarda Lang, was correspondingly pleased about the probable re-entry into the state parliament. “This means that the Saarlanders want a voice for climate protection, for real climate protection, for renewable energies, for sustainable jobs in the state parliament,” she said on ARD. The Greens are believed to be this voice.

Green co-boss Omid Nouripour sees a positive federal influence on the results of the Greens in Saarland. “If it stays at six percent, this would be the best result we’ve ever had there,” he says on ZDF.

Left: “The Saarland election is special”

The Left Party was shaken by the resignation of its driving force, Oskar Lafontaine, shortly before the election and clearly missed a renewed entry into the state parliament. Left party leader Janine Wissler spoke of a “very bitter evening” with a “disastrous result”. One reason for the fall below the five percent hurdle is the disunity of the state association.

“The Saarland election is special,” said Wissler on ARD. Lafontaine’s resignation and the request not to vote for the left was a hard blow.

As the first election since the federal election in September 2021, the state election was also considered a mood test for the traffic light government made up of SPD, Greens and FDP in the federal government. However, according to election researcher Karl-Rudolf Korte, the significance of the Saarland election is not too great. “We have a break in the epoch,” he says on ZDF, referring to the war in Ukraine. Therefore, one would have to wait for the upcoming state elections to identify a federal trend for 2022.