2024-09-02 14:23:57
The book is cold, very cold even, for the reign of Olaf Scholz. Two regional elections on Sunday in Thuringia and Saxony, which saw a very strong victory from the right – with more than 30% of the vote – showed a real berezina for the three parties in power in Berlin.
Exit the independents of the FDP from the two regional parliaments, the end of course for environmentalists in Thuringia and maintain ric-rac in Saxony. Only the Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz saved the furniture but without more than 8% in Saxony and 6% in Thuringia. The various media are therefore not wrong. Hamburg Magazine The mirror title Monday on a “Damage for liberal democracy”while conservative daily Chance found in these results “Unparalleled Punishment Since World War II” empower the parties.
A campaign “marked by fear”
In these two regions, these three parties are traditionally very weak, competing with the conservative right and the influential left until now linked to the past communist government of these Länder. For ten years, the Social Democrats have not crossed the threshold of 10% in Saxony. For political scientist Tilman Mayer of the University of Bonn, this does not take anything away from the character. “disaster” of these elections for the federal government.
“It was an earthquake for Berlin. These elections are small national elections, a year before the actual federal elections. he noted. According to a survey conducted by the public channel ARD, 58% of voters would have used these local elections to ban the federal government and its leader, Olaf Scholz, who has 17% of positive opinions.
Bodo Ramelow, the outgoing minister of Thuringia – whose party Die Linke fell by 18 points – also recognized on Sunday the national scale of these regional elections. “The campaign is marked by fear. We live in a very bright time. None of the major regional issues played a role,” he judged.
In fact, in these two areas, the war in Ukraine and immigration have taken the political agenda in recent weeks, which has been put forward by the new populist populists, Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW). the third political force. BSW makes no secret of the desire to make these themes, especially the cessation of military aid to kyiv, a central issue in negotiations with the conservative right to create regional coalitions.
Limit Illegal Immigration
Will beating this election for Berlin have consequences on national politics? For Tilman Mayer, we will have to wait for another regional election, on September 22, in Brandenburg, one of the SPD strongholds, to find out. “The loss of this area by the leadership of the parliament could have more devastating effects, especially on the possibility that Scholz will again become a candidate for the presidency in a year,” This political scientist believes.
Meanwhile, the migration issue is expected to continue to be heated, as has been the case since the knife attack in Solingen on August 23. This Tuesday, Olaf Scholz will meet representatives of the regions and the Christian Democratic opposition to prevent illegal immigration. Without guaranteeing that this will make the tripartite coalition, so we do not like, to be healthy again.
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