SPD beats AfD in Brandenburg – BSW needed for majority
Published: Sunday, Sep 22nd 2024, 23:50
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In the state elections in Brandenburg, Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke's SPD has prevailed against the AfD and has once again become the strongest party. After all the votes were counted, the new Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) alliance and the CDU, which achieved its worst result in East Germany since 1990, followed. The Greens, Left Party, FDP and BVB/Freie Wähler remain below the five percent threshold according to the state electoral administration and are not represented in the state parliament.
Woidke could thus continue to govern after eleven years in office - either an alliance with the BSW or a three-party coalition with the BSW and CDU would be possible.
According to election officials, the SPD achieved 30.9% (2019: 26.2%). The AfD, which was classified as a suspected right-wing extremist party and had long been ahead in the polls, achieved 29.2% after all votes had been counted. Sahra Wagenknecht's alliance, which ran for the first time, came third with 13.5 percent, while the CDU only achieved 12.1 percent, its worst result in state elections in Brandenburg to date. The Greens, Left Party, FDP and Free Voters failed to clear the five percent hurdle and did not win a single direct mandate that would have helped them enter the state parliament. At 72.9 percent, voter turnout was higher than ever before in state elections in Brandenburg.
According to the projections by ARD and ZDF, the SPD has 32 seats in the state parliament (2019: 25), while the AfD has 30 (23). The BSW thus receives 14 seats, the CDU 12 (15).
Brandenburg has been governed by the SPD since 1990
After recent poor results in the European elections and the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony, the SPD can now breathe a sigh of relief - even at the federal level. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) can hope for a slight tailwind for the federal election campaign. "It's great that we won," he said during his visit to New York. "I sensed that something was happening." SPD leader Lars Klingbeil and top candidate Woidke backed Scholz as the candidate for chancellor in light of his success.
Since reunification in 1990, the Social Democrats have consistently held the office of Minister President in Brandenburg. During the election campaign, the 62-year-old Woidke deliberately avoided any major joint appearances with Scholz - probably also due to the poor poll ratings of the Berlin coalition. Around 2.1 million people were called to vote - there are fewer eligible voters in the federal state than in Berlin.
Difficult government formation
Before the election, Woidke had announced that he only wanted to remain in government if the SPD became the strongest party - he has now achieved this. However, a continuation of the coalition of SPD, CDU and Greens, which has governed since 2019, is not possible. A two-party coalition of SPD and BSW or a three-party alliance of SPD, CDU and BSW would be conceivable.
Woidke's SPD had made significant gains in the polls immediately before the election. "We have made up ground like never before in the history of our country," he said with regard to the AfD. As so often in history, it was social democrats "who stopped extremists on their way to power". Woidke announced that he would first talk to the CDU about forming a governing coalition.
The Secretary General of the federal CDU, Carsten Linnemann, spoke of a "bitter defeat". Woidke had put all his eggs in one basket with his threat to resign - and won. "This is what credibility looks like." CDU top candidate Jan Redmann does not want to resign from the state chairmanship after the election defeat. "That would send out the wrong signal," he said.
Left Party lead candidate Sebastian Walter called his party's result "disastrous". Many people had voted SPD - "but not out of conviction". The reason, in his view, was the "panic campaign of the Minister President" against the AfD.
No party wants to govern with AfD
Despite its good results, the AfD has no prospect of participating in government: No other party wants to work with it. Federal party leader Tino Chrupalla said that the goal of "retiring" Woidke had been missed. However, the eastern German elections in Thuringia, Saxony and now Brandenburg were successful: "We won gold once and silver twice." The rise of the AfD has also recently triggered concerns abroad about a shift to the right in Germany, for example among EU and NATO partners.
The Central Council of Jews expressed its concern. "If almost a third of voters once again want to see a destructive political party such as the AfD in power and a populist force such as the BSW once again reaches double figures, then we must not remain unaffected," said Central Council President Josef Schuster.
FDP deputy leader Wolfgang Kubicki commented on the poor performance of his party and the Greens: "People are done with the traffic light." He gives the governing coalition in the federal government just two to three weeks to solve fundamental problems in economic and migration policy. Otherwise, it would no longer make sense for the FDP to "continue to participate in this coalition", he said.
According to projections, AfD wins blocking minority in state parliament
According to projections by ARD and ZDF, the AfD is likely to win more than a third of the seats in the state parliament, giving it a so-called blocking minority. This would allow it to block decisions and elections in the state parliament that require a two-thirds majority, for example the election of constitutional judges. Constitutional amendments are also only possible with such a qualified majority. Three weeks ago, the AfD had already won a blocking minority in the state elections in Thuringia.
©Keystone/SDA
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