Monday, September 13, 2021
Local election in Lower Saxony
CDU strongest force – but with losses
As the last mood test before the federal election in two weeks, the Lower Saxony vote at the municipal level. For the Union, the election results in slight losses, as well as for the SPD. The Greens, FDP and AfD, on the other hand, have made gains.
The CDU became the strongest force in the local elections in Lower Saxony in the urban and rural districts as well as in the Hanover region. According to the preliminary official final result, it is ahead of the SPD (30), the Greens (15.9), the FDP (6.5), AfD (4.6) and the Left (2.8) with 31.7 percent.
The CDU has been the strongest municipal force in Lower Saxony for around 40 years. Compared to the elections five years ago, however, it now had to accept losses: In 2016, the Christian Democrats received 34.4 percent of the vote. The SPD also lost slightly, at that time it received 31.2 percent. The Greens won five percentage points, while the AfD also gained votes. Things went a little better for the FDP (2016: 4.8 percent), the left roughly maintained their weak level.
Almost 6.5 million citizens were called upon to decide on the composition of the city and local councils as well as the district councils. In addition, new mayors and district administrators were available for direct election in some municipalities.
Since no one received an absolute majority at the first attempt in several mayor and district council elections from the applicants, a decision there will only be made in a runoff in two weeks. Queues formed in a number of polling stations on Sunday because there were restrictions due to the corona pandemic and the voting process was not as quick as usual.
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