After the success six months ago in the federal government, the SPD also won the election in Saarland. The previous Minister for Economic Affairs, Anke Rehlinger, will become the new Prime Minister. The CDU crashes on a historically bad result.
After more than two decades, there is a change of power in Saarland. In the state elections on Sunday, the SPD was the strongest party ahead of the CDU with a sweeping victory. The new prime minister will be her top candidate, the previous economics minister, Anke Rehlinger. The 45-year-old replaces the previous CDU Prime Minister Tobias Hans (44). The first state election since the federal election six months ago was also seen as a mood test for the new federal government.
According to the provisional official final result, it came to 43.5 percent on Sunday, as can be seen on the website of the state returning officer after counting all constituency results. Compared to the 2017 election (29.6 percent), this means an increase of almost 14 points. The CDU, on the other hand, falls to only around 28.5 percent (2017: 40.7 percent) – their worst result in the Saar for more than six decades.
Mathematically, a grand coalition would be possible in Saarbrücken again, as has been the case for ten years – but now under the leadership of the SPD. However, the first figures also left open the possibility that the Social Democrats would have an absolute majority in Germany’s smallest state parliament. Rehlinger could then govern alone – without a coalition partner.
This depended on the outcome of the smaller parties. Green leader Omid Nouripour was open to a coalition between his party and the election winner, the SPD. “The ball is of course with the SPD, and of course we are also ready to talk,” said Nouripour on ZDF.
Left with 2.6 percent flown out of Parliament
FThe AfD is just back in the state parliament with 5.7 percent (6.2). The Greens narrowly missed entry with 4.99502 percent (plus 1.0 percentage point). The quarreling left fell, gained 2.6 percent (minus 10.3 percentage points) and was thrown out of the state parliament. The party had had serious quarrels in the Saar – up to the resignation of its ex-federal chairman Oskar Lafontaine. With 4.8 percent (plus 1.5 percentage points), the FDP again missed entry into parliament.
Voter turnout was 61.4 percent. In 2017, 69.72 percent of Saarlanders had cast their votes.
Second attempt to the top
The deputy SPD federal vice-president Rehlinger made it to the top in her home country at the second attempt. The lawyer is now the first SPD head of government in the history of her country. Nationwide, there will then be four social democratic women at the head of a state government – more than ever before. The other parties from the Union to the Greens to the Left only have male heads of government. For the SPD, this is the best result in the Saar since the turn of the millennium.
Also read:
► This Merkel honor in the German Historical Museum is inappropriate
► Why Friedrichstrasse will finally become Trostlosstrasse
Saarland, with just one million inhabitants, is also the smallest of the federal states. Nevertheless, the election was also the first mood test for the traffic light coalition under SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the Union under CDU chairman Friedrich Merz. State elections in Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony will follow this year. The federal SPD hailed the success in the Saar as a “landslide victory”. Secretary General Kevin Kühnert said with a view to the next elections: “That gives us incredible momentum.” The Greens co-chairman Ricarda Lang pointed out on ARD that her party was now represented again in all 16 state parliaments.
The CDU had been the head of government in Saarbrücken for almost 23 years without interruption. However, Hans was his party’s top candidate for the first time. He took over the post of Prime Minister in 2018 from Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was moving from Saarland to federal politics at the time. Hans has so far left open whether he would also go into the cabinet as a deputy under Rehlinger.