Brandenburg elects new state parliament – ​​AfD faces more wins – Politics –

The right-wing populist party had already won the state election in Thuringia three weeks ago and narrowly became the second-strongest party in Saxony, the largest state in eastern Germany. In both countries, the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has become the strongest force in the democratic camp. The chancellor’s Social Democrats are hoping to defend their stronghold in Brandenburg and thus stabilize themselves. In national opinion polls, they are currently only third behind the CDU/CSU and the AfD.

Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woedke, who has been in office for eleven years, has tied his political future to the election result: he wants to resign if the AfD comes in first. However, given the lack of coalition partners, the AfD has little chance of governing on its own. So far, Woedke’s SPD has been in coalition with the CDU and the Greens. It is unclear what a future coalition government might look like. In recent opinion polls, the CDU is in third place behind the AfD and the SPD, just ahead of the new Sahra-Wageknecht alliance. The Greens, the Left, the Free Voters and the FDP are all below the five percent mark. If a party wins a direct mandate, it will still have several representatives in the state parliament. There are usually 88 seats up for grabs in the Potsdam state parliament. If there are multiple overlay and compensation mandates, there can be up to 110 mandates.