State elections in the eastern German state of Brandenburg begin
Published: Sunday, Sep 22nd 2024, 08:20
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Voters in the eastern German state of Brandenburg are deciding the future balance of power in the state parliament today.
Polling stations opened at 8.00 a.m. in the morning. Around 2.1 million people in the federal state can vote. The main focus is on the question of how well the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) is performing.
In recent polls, the AfD was just ahead of the Social Democrats (SPD), who have held the office of Minister President in Brandenburg since 1990. The AfD is listed by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (domestic intelligence service) as a suspected right-wing extremist party.
The last state election of the year in Germany is also considered to be important in terms of national politics. The AfD is hoping to "smash" the "traffic light" coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals (FDP) in Berlin with an election victory. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's SPD, on the other hand, is hoping to defend its stronghold and thus stabilize itself.
In Brandenburg itself, Minister President Dietmar Woidke, who has been in office for eleven years, has linked his political future to the outcome of the election: The Social Democrat has announced that he will relinquish his government post if the AfD comes first. However, due to a lack of coalition partners, the AfD has little prospect of governing itself.
So far, Woidke's SPD has formed a coalition with the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Greens. What a government coalition might look like in the future remains to be seen. In the latest polls, the CDU was in third place behind the AfD and SPD, just ahead of the new, left-wing populist alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).
The Greens, the Left Party, the Free Voters and the FDP fell short of the five percent mark. However, if a party wins a direct mandate, it will still enter the state parliament with several MPs.
There are usually 88 seats up for grabs in the Potsdam state parliament. If there are many overhang and compensatory seats, there can be up to 110 seats.
©Keystone/SDA
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