AfD has to leave the state parliament
CDU clearly wins election in Schleswig-Holstein
05/09/2022, 02:35 am
The preliminary result confirms the CDU as the clear winner in Schleswig-Holstein. With 43.4 percent of the votes, the Christian Democrats left the Greens and the SPD far behind. The AfD has much less to celebrate – it will no longer have a say in the North German state parliament.
According to the preliminary official results, Prime Minister Daniel Günther’s CDU emerged as the strongest party in the state elections in Schleswig-Holstein. The Christian Democrats come to 43.4 percent and thus increase by more than eleven points. The SPD loses more than eleven points to just 16.0 percent. The Greens are the new second strongest party with 18.3 percent and an increase of 5.4 points. The FDP loses 5.1 points to 6.4 percent. The South Schleswig Voters’ Association (SSW) increased significantly to 5.7 percent.
With 4.4 percent, the AfD missed re-entering the Kiel state parliament. It was only in 2017 that the AfD made it into the state parliament in the northernmost state. Before the election, polls had seen the party at five to six percent. Top candidate Jörg Nobis identified internal disputes as the cause of the defeat. “Internal disputes are not appreciated by voters,” he said. Even before the election, the AfD had lost its faction status in the state parliament.
SPD top candidate Thomas Losse-Müller also admitted his electoral defeat. “We didn’t manage to really set our themes.” Federal chairwoman Saskia Esken said the SPD is now turning its attention to the elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in a week’s time. “We don’t play on the field in North Rhine-Westphalia – we play for victory! I’m very confident that the new Prime Minister will be called Thomas Kutschaty,” Esken told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
“It was a Günther election”
Esken rejected the interpretation that the poor performance of the Social Democrats in the north was related to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Ukraine policy. “The result in Schleswig-Holstein has nothing to do with any of that. It was a state election with state issues – and above all a very popular prime minister,” she said, referring to the election winner Daniel Günther. He was also able to assert himself clearly against his SPD challenger Losse-Müller in the Eckernförde constituency. Both top candidates competed directly against each other. After the full count of the constituency votes, Günther received 58.4 percent, according to the election officials. Losse-Müller was far behind with 16.1 percent.
FDP leader Christian Lindner made a similar statement. The election was not a state election, he said. “It was a Günther election”. He congratulated the Prime Minister on a “great electoral success”. For the FDP, it is a good perspective that a majority from the CDU and FDP is possible. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck pointed out on ZDF that voters had clearly strengthened the CDU and Greens. A government order for black-green can be derived from this. “I think that would be a success story,” said the Vice Chancellor. He thinks Günther is “smart enough” to consider this.
The CDU federal chairman Friedrich Merz congratulated Günther on Twitter. “An outstanding result for you personally, but also for the entire CDU,” he wrote. The CDU has 34 seats in the new state parliament, which means that it lacks one seat for an absolute majority. The Greens have 14 seats and the SPD 12 seats. The FDP sends five MPs and the SSW four MPs. Of the 35 constituencies, the CDU won 32 directly, while two constituencies in Kiel and one in Lübeck went to direct candidates from the Greens. Voter turnout was 60.4 percent, down from 64.2 percent in 2017.
Talks with Greens and FDP planned
Günther spoke to cheering supporters of an “enormous vote of confidence” and “enormous support”, “also for me personally”. The 48-year-old announced that he would hold talks with the two previous coalition partners in the next few days. “I said before the election that I would like to continue governing in Jamaica. And that’s why it’s completely clear to me that I’ll say clearly after the election that I’ll hold talks with the Greens and the FDP.”
However, the resumption of the old three-party coalition is considered unlikely. In the future, the CDU will only be dependent on one coalition partner. The previous partners have each already campaigned for a continuation of the alliance with the CDU – Günther did not indicate any preference on the evening of the election. The SSW was also open to talks. The SPD, on the other hand, is unlikely to play a role in the formation of a government.