Before the state elections in Lower Saxony, Prime Minister Stephan Weil’s SPD is confident of victory – the CDU around challenger Bernd Althusmann is also still convinced that it can become the strongest force. On Sunday around 6.1 million people are called upon to elect a new state parliament.
Prime Minister Weil received prominent support on Saturday afternoon in Hanover – Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, came to the conclusion of their party friend’s election campaign.
Althusmann continued to fight on Saturday. “Surveys are not always right either, we last saw that in NRW,” he said. Many voters have not yet decided who they want to vote for.
SPD in polls ahead of the CDU
In the most recent polls, the SPD (31 to 32 percent) was just ahead of the CDU (27 to 30 percent), followed by the Greens (16 to 19 percent). The AfD (9 to 11 percent) could improve to a double-digit result, the FDP (5 percent) has to tremble about staying in the state parliament in Hanover. The left (3 to 4 percent) was just below the five percent hurdle.
The SPD currently governs with the CDU. Weil’s desired coalition is a red-green alliance, both parties can hope for a majority. Weil had already governed together with the Greens in his first term.
In the speeches by Weil, Scholz and Dreyer, the effects of the energy crisis and high inflation were once again the dominant themes – as in large parts of the election campaign.
Election campaign without national issues
State political aspects played only a subordinate role in the election campaign. With a lack of teachers and educators or the restructuring of agriculture in the agricultural country, there would have been important issues.
Weil accused his challenger Althusmann on Saturday of not having conducted a state election campaign, but one against the traffic light coalition in Berlin. “What a weak picture,” criticized the SPD politician.
Weil has been head of government in Hanover since early 2013. If re-elected, he could break the record of Ernst Albrecht (CDU) as prime minister with the longest term in Lower Saxony – he led the state government from 1976 to 1990. The parliamentary term lasts five years.
High popularity ratings for Weil
During the election campaign, the SPD relied heavily on Weil’s high popularity ratings. In polls on the preferred prime minister – Weil or Althusmann – the SPD man was regularly well ahead of his challenger. Thanks in part to this official bonus, the polls for the SPD in Lower Saxony are significantly better than in the federal government.
However, a few days before the election, Weil suffered a setback when he chaired a federal-state summit on the energy crisis that yielded no result – grist to the mill of the CDU, which accuses the federal government around Chancellor Scholz of not having a clear plan to deal with energy concerns to pursue.
