- According to forecasts by ARD and ZDF, the SPD with Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke prevailed against the AfD in the state elections in Brandenburg.
- According to the figures from 6 p.m., the Social Democrats are ahead – narrowly on ARD, but clearly on ZDF.
- The AfD, which had been ahead in polls for a long time, ended up in second place.
The SPD received 31.8 percent, followed by the AfD with 29.2 percent. The Sarah Wagenknecht (BSW) coalition came in third with 12 percent – ahead of the CDU with 11.6 percent. The Greens can expect 4.7 percent of the vote.
State elections have national significance
In the run-up to the state elections, the AfD stated that it was hoping to “destroy” the “traffic light” coalition of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Liberals (FDP) in Berlin with an election victory.
However, parties that fail to clear the five percent hurdle still have a chance via the basic mandate clause: If they win at least one direct mandate, they enter the state parliament – with the number of seats according to their second vote result.
SPD top candidate Dietmar Woidke (centre) after the first forecasts were announced in Potsdam.
REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
SPD Prime Minister Woidke had announced before the election that he would only continue to hold government responsibility if the Social Democrats performed better than the AfD.
The question of the coalition
Brandenburg has been governed by a coalition of the SPD, CDU and Greens since 2019. What a future coalition might look like is unclear. The AfD has little chance of forming a government because no one wants to form a coalition with it. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Brandenburg classifies it as a suspected right-wing extremist case.
In the state election five years ago, a similar picture emerged before the vote as today on Sunday. Ultimately, the Social Democrats, with Woidke at the helm, managed to become the strongest force in a final spurt with 26.2 percent. The AfD followed in second place with 23.5 percent, followed by the CDU with 15.6 percent. The Greens and the Left Party achieved double-digit results with 10.8 and 10.7 percent, respectively, while the Free Voters managed to enter the state parliament with 5.0 percent. The FDP failed to clear the five percent hurdle with 4.1 percent. Voter turnout at the time was 61.3 percent. The SPD has been the Prime Minister of Brandenburg since 1990.