Monday, September 23
Brandenburg elections: AfD narrowly miss out on first place
Yesterday, the long-anticipated (and much-worried-about) state elections took place in Brandenburg and – although polls had been suggesting an AfD victory was likely for over a year – the SPD was able to achieve the strongest results. The results were as follows
- 🔴 SPD 30.9%
- 🔵 AfD 29.2%
- 🟥 BSW 13.5%
- ⚫️ CDU 12.1%
No other party was able to exceed the 5% mark, meaning they will not be reelected to state parliament. The Greens got 4.1%, Die Linke 3% and the BVB/Free voters took 2.6%.
So, what happens next? The other parties have all pledged not to form a coalition with the far-right AfD, but talks over forming a new state government may be tricky. Brandenburg’s Ministerpräsident, Dietmar Woidke, who took his party to first place in these elections, has announced that he would first like to hold talks with the CDU. But even if these are successful, a red-black coalition would only be able to form a minority government.
Sahra Wagenknecht’s new party, the BSW, which achieved 13.5% in its first election, may need to be brought in – but this left-wing group would find it difficult to agree with the CDU on many positions. The party’s candidate in Brandenburg, Robert Crumbach, has made it clear that foreign policy is an important issue for them, demanding a statement from the state government on the Russia-Ukraine war and speaking out against stationing US nuclear missiles in Germany.
