Scholz’s Social Democrats hold back the far right in German state vote

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) party narrowly won an election in the eastern German state of Brandenburg on Sunday. 

Three weeks after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made gains in two other east German states, the SPD came out on top. 

According to final results published Sunday evening by the state electoral administration, the SPD won 30.9% of the votes while the AfD came a close second with 29.2%. 

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a new leftist movement, came in third with 13.5% while the centre-right Christian Democrats took 12.1%. 

The SPD’s victory brought a reprieve to Scholz, whose three-party governing coalition has fared poorly in elections so far this year. 

Social Democrats have governed Brandenburg since 1990, and a loss there would have been a major setback for Scholz, who has his constituency in the state capital of Potsdam. 

Scholz has expressed his desire to be his party’s candidate for Chancellor in next year’s federal election, with this weekend’s vote also being watched for what it might signal about his political future. 

However, the success of the SPD in Brandenburg was largely credited not to Scholz, but to the state governor Dietmar Woidke. 

He distanced himself from Scholz during his campaign and took the gamble of promising to resign in the event of the far-right’s victory. 

“It is an important victory for me, it’s an important victory for my party, and it’s an important victory for the state of Brandenburg,” Woidke said after polls closed.