Germany: a little respite for Olaf Scholz

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The German chancellor’s SPD won test regional elections in Lower Saxony on Sunday. The Greens and the AfD, the far-right party, are progressing.

From our correspondent in Berlin, Pascale Hugues

VSIt was not an election like the others. “I have never experienced such a campaign. People are barely interested in regional issues”, noted a few days ago the outgoing Minister-President of Lower Saxony, the Social Democrat Stephan Weil, winner of this highly anticipated regional election.

The SPD remains the strongest party, with 33% of the vote, far ahead of the conservative opposition CDU (27.5%), which does not record the score so hoped for. The big winners of this election: the Greens (14%), which have replenished their score from four years ago, and the AfD (nearly 12%), the far-right party, which the war in Ukraine and the fear it carries are bringing them back to the forefront of the political scene.

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