German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years.
Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east.
Photo: EPA
The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million, is known for its steep river valleys, many lined with vineyards and topped by castles.
It is also home to heavy industry, including steelmakers and chemicals giant BASF, and hosts several US military facilities, including the sprawling Ramstein Air Base.
Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Alexander Schweitzer of the SPD has campaigned in hopes of holding together his coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats.
However, polls suggest the CDU’s top candidate, Gordon Schnieder, could put his party back in power there for the first time since 1991.
A CDU victory would be a shot in the arm for Merz, who has faced poor popularity ratings and struggled to meet his campaign pledge of rebooting Europe’s biggest economy after years of stagnation. The CDU’s top candidate in Rhineland-Palatinate is the brother of German Minister of Transport Patrick Schnieder.
“We want to win. And if we win, we’ll be happy,” Merz said at a campaign event with Gordon Schnieder on Friday. However, he stressed that the CDU win he hoped for over the SPD should not distract the two parties from their government cooperation at the national level.
“The next day I will continue discussions with the SPD party leaders how we can get this country back on track together,” he said.
For the SPD, a defeat would spell another blow as the fortunes of Germany’s traditional labor party have faded in recent years amid a string of bitter electoral defeats.
The insurgent anti-immigration AfD are in third place in Rhineland-Palatinate, polling at close to 20 percent, more than double the support the party won in the last election in 2021.
Nationally, the AfD is now neck-and-neck with the CDU, with both polling at about 25 percent.
In September, voters in eastern Germany would take part in several state elections, with the AfD expected to perform particularly well and potentially claim outright majorities.
Any alliance with the AfD remains taboo in the country, with all other parties refusing to cooperate with the far right.
The CDU faced a bitter defeat earlier this month in the larger state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, where missteps squandered a large lead in the polls to allow the Greens to claim victory.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Greens are expected to come in fourth, according to the polls, which have roughly tracked their 2021 result of nine percent.
In the absence of a clear majority for any party, a coalition between the CDU and SPD appears to be the most likely scenario for the region.
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