Agency Report –
Berlin – Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) said the outcome of local elections in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia is a setback for the democratic establishment, after a far-right party managed to nearly triple its share of votes.
“You have to describe the results exactly as they are: this is a poor result for the SPD, but also a poor result overall for the democratic establishment,” SPD state leader Achim Post told public broadcaster ZDF on Monday.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), an anti-immigrant, anti-establishment party that is the biggest opposition force at the national level, surged to third place in Sunday’s elections with 14.5% of the vote, almost thrice as much as it achieved in the last local elections five years ago.
Post said the vote showed the need for the parties of the political centre to “work together to ensure that the AfD becomes smaller again, even smaller than it was in these local elections.”
The elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, where some 20,000 seats in local councils were up for grabs, were the first big test at the ballot box for the governing coalition of Chancellor Friedrich Merz since it took office in May.
While Merz’s centre-right Christian Democrats came first with 33.3%, followed by the SPD, the junior partner at national level, at 22.1%, concern was high among the mainstream parties on Monday as the AfD appeared to further cement its rise to the top of German politics.
Last year marked the first time a far-right party won state elections in Germany’s post-war history, when the AfD came out on top in Thuringia. In February, the party came in second in the country’s national elections, surpassing the SPD.
So far, the AfD has been relegated to remain in opposition, as all mainstream parties have ruled out governing with it, but local SPD leader Post warned that Sunday’s vote in North Rhine-Westphalia must be a wakeup call to Merz’s coalition in Berlin.
“The most important thing for me is that the federal government returns to the spirit of the coalition negotiations, where we argued hard about issues, but then made a decision and started to implement things.”
