One day before the state elections in Lower Saxony, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is supporting his party colleague Stephan Weil at the end of the election campaign this Saturday.

In the afternoon, an election campaign event of the incumbent Prime Minister is planned in Hanover, to which Scholz and the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) are expected.

Weil’s CDU challenger Bernd Althusmann will also campaign for votes again on Saturday in Hanover before the Lower Saxony state parliament is re-elected on Sunday.

Survey

In the most recent polls, the SPD was several percentage points ahead of the CDU for its top candidate Weil. So far, both parties have governed together in Lower Saxony. Weil’s desired coalition is a red-green alliance, the two parties can hope for a majority. Weil had already governed together with the Greens in his first term.

The energy crisis and high inflation were the dominant issues in the election campaign – national political aspects only played a subordinate role. With a lack of teachers and educators or the restructuring of agriculture in the agricultural country, there would have been important issues.

support

Plenty of prominent politicians came to Lower Saxony on Friday to support the respective state parties in the final stretch of the election campaign – including CDU leader Friedrich Merz, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) and Federal Minister of Finance and FDP leader Christian Lindner.

The liberals have to worry about entering the state parliament – polls have seen the FDP at five percent for some time. If the CDU catches up with the SPD, it could be their third state election win in a row after Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia in the spring. That would give CDU leader Friedrich Merz further tailwind. Should the FDP miss its entry into the state parliament, there would probably also be an impact on the traffic light coalition at federal level.

With around eight million inhabitants, Lower Saxony is the fourth most populous federal state in Germany. Around 6.1 million voters are called on Sunday to elect a new state parliament.

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.