state election
Open polling stations in Lower Saxony: Tight race expected
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) is popular – will he remain in office? photo
© Swen Pförtner/dpa
Will Lower Saxony’s long-standing Prime Minister Stephan Weil of the SPD remain in office? Or will CDU candidate Bernd Althusmann replace him? The state elections are also being watched with excitement in the federal government.
The state elections in Lower Saxony have begun. The polling stations have been open since 8 a.m. on Sunday and voting is possible until 6 p.m. Almost 6.1 million people are entitled to vote. In the most recent polls, the SPD with Prime Minister Stephan Weil, who is seeking a third term, was just ahead of the CDU with challenger Bernd Althusmann.
So far, the two parties have governed together, but a continuation of the grand coalition is considered unlikely. Prime Minister Weil hopes for a new edition of red-green. He led such an alliance from 2013 to 2017. The dominant campaign issue was the energy crisis – the result of the state elections is therefore also being eagerly awaited at federal level.
SPD ahead in recent polls
In the most recent polls, the SPD (31 to 32 percent) was just ahead of the CDU (27 to 30 percent), followed by the Greens (16 to 19 percent). The AfD (9 to 11 percent) could improve to a double-digit result, the FDP (5 percent) has to tremble about remaining in the state parliament in Hanover. The left (3 to 4 percent) was just below the five percent hurdle.
The all-determining issue in the election campaign was the energy crisis, which is why the Lower Saxony elections are also being watched with great excitement in Berlin. The CDU in particular also declared the election to be a vote on the crisis policy of the traffic light coalition in the federal government.
Popularity bonus from Prime Minister Weil
During the election campaign, the SPD relied heavily on Prime Minister Weil’s popularity ratings. In polls on the preferred prime minister – Weil or Althusmann – the SPD man was regularly well ahead of his challenger. Thanks in part to this official bonus, the polls for the SPD in Lower Saxony are significantly better than in the federal government.
However, a few days before the election, Weil had to put up with a setback when he chaired a federal-state summit on the energy crisis without a result – grist to the mill of the CDU, which accuses the federal government around Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) of not having a clear plan to address energy concerns.
In the 2017 state elections, the SPD (36.9 percent) was the strongest force, followed by the CDU (33.6 percent), the Greens (8.7 percent), the FDP (7.5 percent) and the AfD (6.2 percent). . The left narrowly missed entering the state parliament in Hanover with 4.6 percent. Voter turnout was 63.1 percent.
It is unclear whether concerns about rising prices will particularly motivate voters to go to the polls this time, or whether they will be discouraged from doing so. However, a higher proportion of postal votes than in the past state elections is expected.