Amid intense debate and increasingly open questioning in Germany regarding the political future of Friedrich Merz, the chancellor’s conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is on track to take first place in Lower Saxony, a federal state where local elections were held yesterday, Sunday, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is seeing a dramatic rise in its share of the vote but remains in third place, behind the ruling Social Democrats (SPD).
According to an exit poll by the Infratest dimap institute, broadcast by the public broadcaster NDR late last night, the CDU is expected to garner 27.7% of the vote, the SPD 24.5%, and the AfD 16.5% (up from 4.6% in the previous election). In fourth place are the Greens with 13.6%, followed by The Left (Die Linke) at 5.9%, while the Free Democrats (FDP) are limited to 3.6% and risk being excluded from this state parliament as well.
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The final results are expected to be announced later today.
Sebastian Lechner, the CDU leader in Lower Saxony, appeared optimistic about the victory last night. He expressed confidence that the state would show it is bucking the national trend, though he noted that “we, too, are seeing discontent with Berlin” and that the party has a “credibility problem” that needs to be discussed calmly in the coming weeks, as “I believe political change may be necessary.”
When asked about Mr. Merz’s future, a week after the crushing defeat in Saxony-Anhalt that sparked the turmoil, Mr. Lechner said that now is not the time to discuss specific individuals, the CDU must prepare for the upcoming elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin next week.
“Then (…) we will discuss within the CDU, as a team, how we can provide tangible relief to the people of this country and implement policies that will bring about economic recovery,” he added.
Voter turnout in the Lower Saxony election was higher than it was five years ago: the election commission announced that it had reached 50.67% as early as 4:30 p.m.
At the city level, the first result where a trend became apparent was in Wolfsburg, the home of Volkswagen, where CDU Mayor Dennis Weilmann won re-election in the first round, albeit by a narrow margin (50.1%), followed by Carsten Schneider (SPD), who received 15.5%, and Thomas Schick (AfD), who came in third with 14.1%. However, in Hanover, the state capital, a second round is expected to be necessary. With more than two-thirds of the votes counted, it was expected that the outgoing mayor, Belit Onay (Greens), and Axel von der Ohe (SPD) would be among the candidates.
