State elections in Lower Saxony: It would be enough for red-green

Status: 09.10.2022 23:44

According to the preliminary results, the SPD is clearly the strongest party in the elections in Lower Saxony, followed by the CDU, the Greens and the AfD. The federal state could therefore face a change of color in terms of the government alliance.

She remains the political leader in Lower Saxony – the SPD and with her the incumbent and, with the victory in the state elections, future Prime Minister Stephan Weil. With 33.4 percent of all votes, the Social Democrats landed well ahead of the CDU, which came in second place among the parties with 28.1, according to the preliminary result.

However, both parties are also making losses compared to their 2017 results: the SPD is around 3.5 Percentage points below their performance in the previous state election, the CDU loses 5.5 percentage points. The head of state and top candidate of the CDU, Bernd Althusmann, drew the conclusion on the evening of the election and announced his resignation.

The Greens follow behind the SPD and CDU with 14.5 percent of the vote. This is their best result so far in Lower Saxony, but they still end up below the mark of 15 percent or more promised in the pre-election polls.

The AfD can also grow strongly: With 10.9 percent, it can improve its result from 2017 by 4.8 percentage points.

FDP fails at five percent hurdle

And that would complete the parties represented in the state parliament. Because the FDP just failed at the five percent hurdle. The Liberals have to cope with a drop of 2.8 percentage points and only get 4.7 percent of the vote.

The Left Party is also clearly outside the state parliament with 2.7 percent.

Open ogling of red and green

Even while the ballot papers were still being counted, the question arose among the parties as to what would happen next with the state government of Lower Saxony. Because with the departure of the FDP, the possibilities for alliances have shrunk – the option of the traffic light as at the federal level is out, as is a Jamaica coalition – the merger of the CDU, Greens and FDP, on which the CDU could have speculated.

But already in the election campaign in Lower Saxony the tendency in terms of who-with-whom became clear. Away from red-black and towards the new red-green duet.

Mathematically, it would clearly be enough for the merger between the SPD and the Greens: In the future, the SPD will have 57 seats in the state parliament, the Greens 24 – a clear majority with a total of probably 146 seats in the state parliament. The SPD and CDU majority would be much more comfortable – both would combine 107 seats.

With its election result, the AfD achieved 18 seats in the future state parliament.

Signs in Lower Saxony on red-green

Claudia Wohlsperger, NDR, 9.10.2022 11:50 p.m

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