[ad_1]
German Christian Democrats won a landslide victory in elections in East Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, in a major boost for their leader Armin Laschet and her candidacy to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in September.
The CDU was able to withstand a strong challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which had tried to capitalize widespread public discontent on the closure of Covid-19.
The projections of the German public broadcaster ARD, traditionally considered an accurate predictor of the final results, placed the Christian Democratic Union at 36%, an increase of more than 6 points compared to the last state elections in 2016. AfD stood at 22.7%, down 1.6%. percentage points with respect to its 2016 result.
Projections, based on exit polls, suggest that the current CDU coalition of Social Democrats and Greens, led by CDU Reiner Haseloff, will have enough seats in the regional parliament to remain in power. But the CDU could also choose to form a partnership with the pro-business SPD and Free Democrats (FDP).
“I have been prime minister for ten years and people know me, they know it. . . what I stand for, ”Haseloff, a 67-year-old former academic, told ARD. “I think that credibility was a deciding factor.”
He also thanked voters for “building a clear firewall against the far right” by supporting the center-right CDU instead of the AfD.
Some pre-election polls had suggested that the AfD could beat the CDU in second place. Even if that happened, however, he would not be in a position to form a government, as no other party is willing to form a coalition with it.
The impressive AfD result in 2016, when it won almost a quarter of the vote, reflected the public backlash against Angela Merkel’s liberal immigration policies and the influx into Germany of more than a million of asylum seekers, mostly from the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan.
It was a depressing night for the Social Democrats, a minor partner in Merkel’s grand coalition government, who saw their share of the vote fall 2 points to 8.3 percent, one of Germany’s worst post-war results. . Greens increased to 6.6%, an increase of 1.4 points compared to 2016.
“We have increased our share of the vote, but not as much as we had expected,” said Annalena Baerbock, the Greens ’candidate for chancellor.
The pro-business FDP got 6.5% of the vote, an increase of 1.6 points compared to 2016. The far left Die Linke, which has its roots in the former communist party that ruled Germany of the East, fell to 10.8%, from 16.3 five years ago.
Saxony-Anhalt is a small state with a population aged only 1.8 m. German reunification plunged it into an economic depression from which it is still recovering, and the population has shrunk by 24% since 1990, when young people headed west in search of better jobs.
The state is also facing further economic upheavals in the coming decades as Germany shuts down its lignite mines – a major business in Saxony-Anhalt – as part of efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The result was a victory for Armin Laschet, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, who will run as a joint candidate for chancellor of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU in the September federal elections, which will mark the end of Angela Merkel’s 16 years as chancellor.
The CDU fell in the polls earlier this year, plagued by public frustration at the slow pace of the vaccination campaign and a corruption scandal involving a group of Christian Democrat MPs.
There have also been doubts about Laschet’s ability to win the Bundestag elections which were exploited by Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, who was proclaimed a candidate for chancellor of the CDU / CSU, provoking a fierce power struggle. Laschet hopes that the decisive result in Saxony-Anhalt will finally dispel these doubts.
[ad_2]
Source link
