Germany has hope, social democrats celebrate - SPD ahead of AfD in Brandenburg

Sipas rezultateve të para zgjedhore, partia e kryeministrit të preferuar në Brandenburg, Dietmar Woidke, SPD, arrin të marrë 31,2% të votave, kurse AfD në 29,9%.

2024-09-22 20:25:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Social Democrats in Brandenburg should feel liberated and celebrate this Sunday. The data speaks of a victory for the SPD in the state elections in Brandenburg. According to the forecast of ARD, of the infratest dimap Institute, the Social Democratic Party reaches 31.2% of the votes, just ahead of the AfD with 29.9%. But according to the data of the study group "Elections" for ZDF television, the SPD leads with 31.8%, the AfD ranks second with 29.2%.

Hans-Christoph Berndt, for Brandenburg with Björn Höcke, head of the AfD branch for Thuringia Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa/picture alliance
According to SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, the "marathon of reaching the target" worked. The SPD of the state was maximally engaged in recent weeks. But the problems of the SPD party in the federation have not become smaller, Kühnert said.

The AfD, which had recently been leading the polls, was ranked second. But its trend is increasing. Five years ago in this country AfD received only 23% of the votes.

The CDU reached 11.8 percent, while the newly formed Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) immediately reached 12 percent. The Greens reach 5% of the vote, according to infratest dimap. And the Left is unlikely to cross the five percent limit.

In Brandenburg, parties that achieve less than 5% of the vote do not enter the state parliament, only if they manage to obtain a direct mandate.

The role of Prime Minister Woidke

Sunday's elections were also a vote for the future of the Prime Minister, Dietmar Woidke (SPD) with three government mandates so far. He announced that if the AfD manages to emerge as the main force, it would withdraw from the government. The Prime Minister of Brandenburg, Woidke is quite popular in the land. According to the ZDF barometer on September 19, 59% of voters wanted him as prime minister.

Before the elections, all parties had ruled out a coalition with the AfD. The Office of Constitutional Protection has categorized the AfD regional branch as a suspected extremist case, and its main candidate Hans-Christoph Berndt as a right-wing extremist. With 73 percent, voter turnout was significantly higher than in 2019. At that time, 61.3 percent went to the polls./ DW