Mood test | CDU wins local elections in Lower Saxony

Throughout Lower Saxony, representatives were elected to municipal representations such as district councils, city and municipal councils, joint municipal councils, city district councils and local councils. Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa Hanover.  In the local elections in Lower Saxony, the CDU has once again become the strongest force and has extended its lead over the SPD. According to the preliminary results of the district elections published by the state election authority on Monday, the AfD made massive gains and ended up in third place ahead of the Greens. The preliminary results for the municipal elections were not yet available; counting was still ongoing.

In the district elections, the CDU got 27.2 percent, while the SPD got 24.6 percent. Both parties lost significantly compared to the local elections five years ago - the CDU 4.5 percentage points, the SPD 5.4 percentage points. The AfD catapulted itself to 15.9 percent with an increase of 11.3 percentage points compared to 2021 and replaced the Greens as the third force. After a decline of 1.8 percent, these came to 14.1 percent.

The Left had a total of six percent, which corresponded to an increase of 3.2 percentage points. The FDP accounted for 3.7 percent and lost 2.8 percentage points. Voter groups and associations accounted for 5.1 percent, with minimal change compared to 2021. According to preliminary results, voter turnout was 64.6 percent. That was 7.6 percentage points more than in the 2021 election.

In Lower Saxony, around 6.3 million eligible voters were called to vote for almost 2,200 local parliaments as well as direct elections for around 400 district administrators, mayors and mayors on Sunday.

The local elections took place a week after the AfD's clear victory in the state elections in neighboring Saxony-Anhalt, so the party's performance in Lower Saxony will also be closely monitored. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies it as definitely right-wing extremist. Several of their mayoral and district council candidates were not admitted to the election because of doubts about their loyalty to the constitution. The background is new rules in the local election law.

CDU state leader Sebastian Lechner spoke on Sunday evening of an election success for his party under difficult conditions. "The discontent with Berlin was clearly noticeable during the election campaign," he explained. The SPD state chairman and Prime Minister Olaf Lies described the result in the evening as difficult for his party: "We all hoped for more," he said, referring to an extrapolation.  AFP/nd

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