“Small federal elections” – North Rhine-Westphalia: CDU clearly ahead of SPD – Greens are growing strongly – News

  • Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst’s CDU has won the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the ZDF projection, at 35.9% (+2.9) it is well ahead of the opposition SPD, which still has 26.6% (-4.6).
  • The Greens have increased significantly. Compared to the last election in 2017, they can almost triple their share. According to the extrapolation, they come to 17.9% (+11.5).
  • The FDP has to accept big losses. It still comes to 5.7 percent (-6.9).
  • It was the biggest political mood test in Germany this year.

Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst sees his party’s performance as a clear government mandate: “The people have clearly made us the strongest force. That is the task of forming and leading a future government.”

Because black and yellow no longer has a majority, there are many indications of an alliance between the CDU and the Greens. «There are two winners tonight. These are the Greens and this is the CDU, my party, »said Wüst. He announced that he would speak to all parliamentary groups except for the AfD about forming a government.

SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert has already emphasized that the Social Democrats will try to form a government even when they come in second – despite the historically poor performance in state elections in the state. The Social Democrats could try to forge a traffic light alliance with the Greens and FDP based on the model in the federal government. It shouldn’t be enough for red-green.

Success for CDU leader Merz

The state elections mean a backing for the new CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who himself comes from North Rhine-Westphalia. He took over the leadership of the party at the end of January and also chaired the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in mid-February.

AfD will probably remain in parliament – ​​the left can’t make it


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If the projections are correct, the right-wing populist AfD is still represented in parliament in Düsseldorf with 5.6% (2017: 7.4%). As in 2017, the Left Party failed at the five percent hurdle with 2.1%.

More than 13 million voters were called to the polls in Germany’s most populous federal state. State elections there are therefore often referred to as “small federal elections”. A week ago, the CDU won the election in Schleswig-Holstein, and the SPD triumphed in Saarland at the end of March. In October there will also be elections in Lower Saxony.

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