STUTTGART/BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The Greens with Cem Özdemir at the helm have narrowly won the state elections in Baden-Württemberg. According to the provisional final results, the CDU only comes in second place, as the state returning officer announced last night.
The 60-year-old former Federal Minister Özdemir is now expected to succeed Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), who did not run again after 15 years in office. For months, the CDU and state leader Manuel Hagel had clearly led in surveys, but in the end the Greens quickly caught up.
The AfD doubles its share of the vote and achieves its best result in a state election in the West. The SPD has fallen to a historic low in state elections nationwide and is barely represented in parliament. Your top candidate Andreas Stoch announced his withdrawal as state and parliamentary group leader. The FDP is thrown out of the state parliament for the first time – state leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke wants to resign from office. The Left also fails at the five percent hurdle.
Equal mandates for the Greens and CDU – and a two-thirds majority
According to the preliminary final result, the Greens have 30.2 percent (2021: 32.6 percent), the CDU is just behind with 29.7 percent (24.1). The AfD received 18.8 percent (9.7). The SPD follows far behind with 5.5 percent (11.0). The FDP got 4.4 percent (10.5), the Left also got 4.4 percent (3.6).
The Greens will therefore receive 56 seats in the state parliament (2021: 58), the CDU also 56 (42). The AfD has 35 mandates (17), the SPD 10 (19). The Greens and CDU therefore have the same number of representatives, even if the Greens won after second votes. Together, the two parties have a two-thirds majority in the state parliament.
Özdemir offers CDU cooperation
Özdemir declared himself the winner in the evening. “We won the election,” he said at the Green election party. When he threw his hat into the ring in 2024, not many would have believed that a day like today could come.
He called on the Christian Democrats to work together again and offered them a “partnership on equal terms”. “The benchmark should be the last ten years and the successes we have achieved.”
Hagel said his CDU achieved its best election result since 2011, but still did not reach first place. The task of forming a government lies with the Greens and Özdemir. “This is a defeat for us.”
Federal Green Party leader Felix Banaszak also called the strong Green Party result an announcement to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and his political “disorientation”.
The 77-year-old Kretschmann, Germany’s first and only head of government for the Green Party, is retiring. He has governed with the CDU since 2016, and before that with the SPD.
Özdemir has been in politics for decades – he sat in the Bundestag and the European Parliament, was leader of the Green Party and also a federal minister. During the election campaign, Özdemir, who calls himself an “Anatolian Swabian”, distanced himself from the federal Greens and gave himself a more conservative profile.
Hagel raved about a student’s “fawn eyes.”
The 37-year-old trained banker Hagel has been the CDU parliamentary group leader in the state parliament since 2021. During the election campaign, the devout Catholic and hunter was criticized for a video: In the eight-year-old clip, he raves about the “fawn eyes” of an underage student.
In the evening, Hagel said that “a dirty election campaign had also been conducted, well below the belt,” which had put a strain on him and his family.
“Totally bitter evening” for the SPD
The historically poor SPD result in the southwest also shocked the federal SPD, where party leader Lars Klingbeil and his coalition partners CDU and CSU have important reforms in the pension and health system ahead of them.
Klingbeil was deeply disappointed. “This is a totally bitter evening,” he said on ZDF. It was just a question of: Cem Özdemir or Manuel Hagel? In the end, that also cost the SPD votes.
AfD: Also a people’s party in Baden-Württemberg
The AfD with its top candidate Markus Frohnmaier is observed by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist case; None of the other parties want to form a coalition with the AfD. AfD federal leader Tino Chrupalla said on ZDF that his party was the winner of the evening. “We are now a people’s party in Baden-Württemberg too.”
The FDP, which has deep roots in the southwest, entered the race with top candidate Rülke. During the election campaign he spoke of the “mother of all elections” for his party. The fact that she is no longer a member of the state parliament in Baden-Württemberg will also make a comeback in the federal government more difficult. But FDP leader Christian Dürr still sees opportunities: After the last federal election, we “started from scratch”. It’s about a marathon and not a sprint.
For the first time, 16 and 17 year olds were allowed to vote
According to the state returning officer, voter turnout is 69.6 percent (2021: 63.8). A good 7.7 million eligible voters were able to cast their votes – more than ever before.
For the first time, new voting rights came into effect; 16 and 17 year olds were also allowed to vote. In addition, for the first time citizens had two votes, as in the federal election. The second vote decides on the balance of power in the state parliament, the first vote decides on the direct candidate in the constituency.
Start of the “super election year 2026”
The election was the first of five state elections in the “super election year 2026” and the first under the black-red federal government under Chancellor Merz. The Union and the SPD are debating important reforms. The election results are therefore important for the mood.
The next election is on March 22nd in Rhineland-Palatinate. The SPD, which has been in power for 34 years, is threatened with losing the position of prime minister. Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will vote in September – here the AfD gets around 40 percent in surveys. A new state parliament will also be elected in Berlin in September./kli/DP/zb
