Anke Rehlinger, candidate of the SPD. /
Bitter defeat for the Christian Democrats who lose power after 23 years
The German Social Democrats (SPD) emerged this Sunday as overwhelming winners of the regional elections in the small federal state of Saarland, where the first official results even foresee an absolute majority in the Saarbrücken parliament. The result is a boost for Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, six months after his victory in the legislative elections in Germany and the confirmation that the SPD is currently the leading political force in this country. The big losers of the day in the first regional elections of the four held in this country in 2022 were the Christian Democrats (CDU), dethroned by their hitherto minor coalition partner after more than four decades in power. The architect of the Social Democratic victory was his candidate for the head of government and until now Saar Minister of Economy, Anke Rehlinger, who clearly prevailed over the already outgoing prime minister, the conservative Tobias Hans, and has had great support from the electorate.
So much so that the Christian Democratic Union and its new president, Friedrich Merz, already declared the elections lost at an official meeting of their executive earlier in the week, according to various media leaks. Hans’s defeat was so predictable that neither Merz nor any other prominent national conservative leader has bothered to travel to the region bordering France to support their candidate during the campaign. Bitter was also the failure of The Left, which was expelled from the regional parliament, largely due to the resignation and delivery of the membership card of the founder of the party and former president of the SPD Oskar Lafontaine. Although it will have three seats, the ultranationalists of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) also lose strength and percentages compared to the previous elections. On the contrary, The Greens, who return to the hemicycle after five years of ostracism, and the Liberal Party (FDP), which also narrowly exceeded the 5% vote barrier and had been absent from the regional parliament for 10 years, had reasons for jubilation.
The first official results give the Social Democrats more than 43% of the vote, some 13 points more than five years ago, the same ones that the Christian Democrats lose to fall to just over 27%. The Greens add 5.6%, AfD 5.5%, the FDP 5.0% and The Left 2.7%, with a spectacular loss of 10 points. If these results are confirmed at the close of the vote, the SPD would have an absolute majority for one seat in the regional parliament, although it could seek the support of environmentalists or liberals, both with three seats each, if necessary, to form a coalition. of government. Since last December, the SPD, Greens and Liberals have formed the tripartite that governs at the national level in Berlin.
“This is the result of hard work in recent years. We have been able to recover the trust of the electorate,” Rehlinger said just 20 minutes after the closing of the polling stations, joining his co-religionists to celebrate the victory. The future prime minister of the Saarland, a former athlete who has held the regional record in the shot put for almost 30 years, said that she will wait to see how the smaller formations position themselves after the elections, she did not rule out the possibility of seeking government alliances and assured that the priority is to give stability to the future executive.
The triumph in the Saar unleashed the enthusiasm of the Social Democrats in the German capital. The general secretary of the party, Kevin Kühnert, spoke of an “overwhelming victory” and an “incredible boost” for his formation. His colleague from the CDU, Mario Czaja, however, played down the importance of the result because it was “only a regional election”. The German conservatives fear that the Social Democrats will continue to chain victories in the next elections that will take place in the federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and, above all, in North Rhine Westphalia, the most populous state in the country with 16 million inhabitants. .