The Social Democrats are strong in the German regional elections

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) defended its dominant position in Sunday’s regional elections in Bremen, a small federal state in northern Germany. He SPD won the election with 29.9% votes, four points more than the conservative opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU)with 25.4%, according to the projection given by the electoral office this Monday.

In this, the SPD will be able to continue to rule Earth, as he has been doing for almost eighty years, probably with his partners from the last convocation — Greens and the leftwith in between 11.9% and 11.1%, respectively-. Bremen is the smallest of the sixteen länder of the German Confederation, with less than half a million voters in that city-state in the north of the country.

However, the election had a certain purpose the character of the pulse, at the federal level, between the Social Democrats Scholz and the CDU, the main opposition force in the Bundestag (Federal Parliament).

Social democracy has traditionally led governments in Bremen for years. This was even in the last convocation, despite the fact that the CDU was in first place in the 2019 regional elections (with 26.7%, two points more than the Social Democrats). The SPD still managed to stay in power by getting the necessary majority in the regional chamber thanks to the support of environmentalists and La Izquierda.

angry citizens

Another point of attention in these elections was the situation of the extreme right Alternative for Germany (AfD), affected in that country by a deep internal division. The situation reached such a point that two parallel lists entered the elections, which meant that both were excluded.

The winner of the internal dispute between the radicals was a third party, a marginal right-wing formation unknown in the rest of the country, the so-called Bürger in Wut (Angry Citizens), which went from nowhere to 9.6% and thus enters the regional legislature for the first time. It is also favored Liberal Party (FDP)which in the pre-election forecasts was on the verge of 5%—the minimum for obtaining a mandate—but which in the end achieved 5.2%.

Although Bremen a Earth small, a number of electoral vagaries make counting the final votes a complex task. are not expected Final final results by Wednesday.