독일 Social Democratic Party's Victory in Niedersachsen State Parliament Election... Coalition Talks with Green Party Underway

The Christian Democratic Union's Worst Defeat in 60 Years... Liberal Democratic Party Reduced to an Extra-Parliamentary Party

Stephan Weil, Prime Minister of Lower Saxony
Photo by AFP Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) has won the state parliament election in the northwestern state of Niedersachsen, according to major foreign media reports on the 10th (local time).

Although the SPD's vote share dropped by 3.5 percentage points compared to the last election, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered its worst defeat in 60 years in Niedersachsen's election history, leading to the SPD's victory. While the vote shares of the two major parties, SPD and CDU, declined, the Green Party and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) saw significant increases in their vote shares.

According to the provisional vote count by the Niedersachsen State Election Commission on the 10th, the SPD received 33.4% of the votes in the Niedersachsen state parliament election held the previous day, surpassing the CDU's 28.1% and securing the highest vote share. The CDU's vote share fell by 5.5 percentage points compared to the last election.

The Green Party and AfD recorded vote shares of 14.5% and 10.9%, respectively, marking increases of 5.8 percentage points and 4.7 percentage points from the previous election.

The SPD has won three consecutive elections in Niedersachsen since 2013. Stephan Weil, the SPD-affiliated Minister-President of Niedersachsen, expressed a desire to form a coalition with the Green Party instead of a grand coalition with the CDU.

After winning the 2013 election, the SPD formed a coalition with the Green Party, and following the 2017 election, it formed a grand coalition with the CDU.

Since the current German federal government is a coalition of the SPD, the Green Party, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), negotiations to form a coalition between the SPD and the Green Party are expected to face no major obstacles.

However, there are concerns that the federal government coalition could become unstable as the FDP, another pillar of the federal coalition, was pushed out of the Niedersachsen state parliament in this election.

The FDP's vote share dropped by 2.8 percentage points from the last election to 4.7%. To enter the German parliament, a party must exceed a 5% vote share.

Within the FDP, dissatisfaction has emerged regarding the defeat in the Niedersachsen election, with complaints that the party has not played a proper role in the left-leaning coalition government.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.