State election
Survey: SPD is the strongest force in Saarland
Anke Rehlinger (SPD), Minister of Economics in Saarland, was chosen by the delegates to be number 1 for the Saarland state elections. Photo: Oliver Dietze / dpa
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The smallest country in Germany has been ruled by the CDU for almost ten years. The Christian Democrats have been the prime minister for over 20 years. That could change soon.
Four months before the state elections in Saarland, the SPD is clearly the strongest political force in the state, according to a survey.
If the state elections were to take place next Sunday, the Social Democrats would get 33 percent of the vote. This comes from the “Saarlandtrend” of the opinion research institute Infratest Dimap on behalf of the Saarland Broadcasting Corporation (SR). While the SPD increased by 11 percentage points compared to the November 2020 survey, the CDU fell by 12 points to 28 percent. During the survey from November 16 to 20, 1165 eligible voters were interviewed.
A new state parliament will be elected in Saarland on March 27, 2022. The smallest country in Germany has been ruled by a grand coalition led by the CDU since 2012. The CDU has been the prime minister in the country since 1999.
According to the survey, the Minister of Economic Affairs and SPD state chairman Anke Rehlinger would get 42 percent approval of a direct election for the office of Prime Minister – 10 points more than a year ago. In contrast, the head of government Tobias Hans (CDU), who was still clearly the leader in the previous year, was 39 percent, which corresponds to a loss of 13 percentage points.
According to “Saarlandtrend”, the Greens would return to the state parliament with 8 percent. Compared to the poll a year ago, however, they lost 4 points in the favor of voters. The FDP, on the other hand, ranks 8 percent higher in the survey: That is 5 points more than in November 2020. In the state elections in March 2017, the Greens (4.0) and FDP (3.3) made the leap over the five Percentage hurdle missed. Meanwhile, support for the Left Party has almost halved – it would only come to 6 percent, which corresponds to a minus of 5 points. The AfD remained almost stable at 9 percent (plus one point).