German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday staved off the far-right in a regional election, likely providing him only a brief reprieve from growing criticism of his leadership within his own party.
The center-left SPD staged a last minute comeback in the eastern state of Brandenburg, where it has ruled since reunification in 1990 and Scholz has his own constituency, to win the election with 30.9 percent of the vote.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which had topped polls for the past two years in the state, won 29.2 percent, according to provisional official results released by the state electoral commissioner.
Photo: AFP
The AfD was up 5.7 percentage points since the last Brandenburg election five years ago, after it earlier this month became the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since World War II.
The AfD continues to gain momentum as it capitalizes on worries about a cost-of-living crisis in Europe’s largest economy, irregular immigration and a possible escalation of the war in Ukraine due to German weapons deliveries to Kyiv.
Moreover, three-quarters of those who voted for the SPD did not do so out of conviction, but rather to fend off the AfD, according to an exit poll published by broadcaster ARD, in an election with a record turnout of 72.9 percent.
Brandenburg Premier Dietmar Woidke of the SPD avoided campaigning with Scholz, Germany’s least popular chancellor on record, and even criticized the federal coalition’s policies and constant bickering.
As such, the regional election results are unlikely to end the growing debate within the SPD over whether Scholz is the right person to lead the party into next year’s federal election given what critics call his hesitant leadership and poor communication skills.
Asked on Sunday if the SPD federal leadership was the right one, Woidke said it was not the right time to answer that question.
“But we must also learn the lessons from this election,” he said, adding that the SPD needed to get closer to the people. “Especially as the federal level is concerned, there is a lot of catching up to do in the coming months and years.”
The SPD is polling just 15 percent at a national level, down from 25.7 percent in the 2021 federal election. That is behind the AfD on about 20 percent and opposition conservatives on 32 percent.
Last week, the mayor of Munich, Germany’s third-largest city, was the latest SPD politician to suggest it should consider fielding popular German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius, 64, as its candidate for next year’s election.
Party insiders say Scholz, 66, who already announced his intention to run for a second term, is unlikely to step aside and more senior officials remain loyal to him.
The junior partners in Scholz’s ideologically heterogeneous coalition suffered dismal performances in Sunday’s election which could further stoke tensions in Berlin.
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