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Radiant faces between the Greens and the SPD, hangover in the CDU: the respective incumbents – Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) and Malu Dreyer (SPD) – won the state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate yesterday. For the CDU, which had long awaited first place in both southern federal states, it set up significant defeats.
In Baden-Württemberg, the former heart of the CDU, Green Prime Minister Kretschmann was even able to improve on the record 2016 result, to 32.3 percent (+ 2.0 percentage points). The CDU finished with just 23.5 percent. According to projections, the fight for third place, between SPD, AfD and FDP, was exciting until the end. In Stuttgart, everything points to a third term for the 72-year-old Kretschmann, who has been Germany’s first Green Prime Minister since 2011.
Winfried Kretschmann (G) was able to significantly increase the gap in the CDU. Image: AFP
However, instead of the green-black coalition, there could be a so-called traffic light coalition made up of the Greens, the SPD and the FDP. However, Kretschmann did not respond to the ARD television station’s question whether the signs are now green-red-yellow instead of green-black. He only spoke of “a good result”.
Mainz: SPD clearly still ahead
In Rhineland-Palatinate, the SPD won 35.7 percent of Prime Minister Malu Dreyer and stalled. Social Democrats are now more than twice as large at the state level as at the federal level. The CDU with challenger Christian Baldauf fell to just 26.8 percent (minus five percentage points). The Greens rose 8.0 percent, the AfD lost 3.0 percentage points to 9.6 percent and the FDP stalled at 5.9 percent. There was jubilation among the “Free Voters” (FW), who, according to the extrapolation, reached the state parliament for the first time. After Bavaria and Brandenburg, they are now represented in three state parliaments.
- Video: Elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate
In all likelihood, Mainz will be governed by a coalition of traffic lights under the leadership of the SPD Prime Minister. Dreyer was very satisfied with her party’s performance in the state elections. It was “just nice that we’re so clearly on top,” he said in a first reaction that night. The SPD once again had a “clear government mandate.”
On the question of whether he wanted to continue the current traffic light coalition with the FDP and the Greens, Dreyer initially only vaguely commented. You “have never left any doubt that the government alliance was a great alliance”, that she would continue. “But now I am happy above all.”
Decreased participation
Turnout fell in the first state elections since the start of the crown pandemic. It was 62.5 percent in Baden-Württemberg (2016: 70.4 percent) and 64 percent in Rhineland-Palatinate (2016: 70.4 percent). The high number of postal voters was remarkable: 50 percent in Baden-Württemberg and 65 percent in Rhineland-Palatinate.
The Greens spoke of a “great electoral result”. “For the third time in a row, the Greens in Baden-Württemberg have grown, they have again become the strongest force and we were also able to significantly double our votes in Rhineland-Palatinate,” said party co-chair Annalena Baerbock. “It’s a great start to the super election year,” said party leader Robert Habeck.
SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil was enthusiastic about his party’s good performance in the state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate. “I am very happy that Malu Dreyer won,” he told ZDF. Election results show that the SPD “earns the trust of the people” when it governs. Klingbeil admitted that he was “not satisfied” with the outcome of the elections in Baden-Württemberg (11.1 percent). Now the question arises whether the SPD will come to the government of Stuttgart.
Schäuble: “It was not a pleasant night”
“It is not a pleasant night for the CDU, but it was predictable,” said Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU). It is positive that the “extreme parties” have not won, but have lost. The elections were also seen as a test for the new German leader of the CDU, Armin Laschet. The sister parties of the Christian Democracy, CDU and CSU, will decide in April or May on the candidate for chancellor, who will follow in Merkel’s footsteps.
According to the general secretary of the CDU, Paul Ziemiak, the two state elections have no impact on the decision on the Union’s candidacy for chancellor. The schedule remains that the CDU and CSU would decide between Easter and Pentecost, Ziemiak said.
