- Conservatives win 35% of the vote – exit polls
- SDP of 27.5% of the votes – exit poll
- Let the Greens become kings of the SPD or CDU
- Job security and the transition from coal to focus
BERLIN, May 15 (Reuters) – Germany’s conservative HDZ was on track to win regional elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday, but the Green Party could emerge as a “king” in a potential coalition with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and the FDP.
According to the exit poll from the infratest dimap, published by the television operator ARD, the HDZ took 35.7% of the vote, while the Social Democrats had 27.0%.
The SPD will try to form a coalition with the Greens and the pro-business FDP – the so-called “traffic light coalition”, said Kevin Kuhnert, the SPD’s secretary general.
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The Greens took 18.1% of the vote according to the exit poll, increasing their share by 11.7 percentage points, while the FDP was 5.5%.
“North Rhine-Westphalia always sends an important signal to federal policy,” said Nico Siegel, executive director of the sociological infratest Dimap, ahead of the election.
The center-left Social Democrats have dominated North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), home to more than a fifth of Germany’s population, and the Ruhr Rust Belt region for most of the last half century.
But the party lost to former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Conservatives in the worst state election in 2017. A few months later, it suffered a record defeat at the federal level.
The HDZ has run the state in a coalition with a business-friendly FDP since 2017. But even with its lead over the SPD in Sunday’s vote, it did not secure a majority with the FDP, which lost 7.1 percentage points from four years ago.
Greens co-chair Ricardo Lang has said the party wants to pursue a climate-friendly policy in the state and will form a coalition with the party to pave the way.
LOCAL ISSUES
Last week, the HDZ won with a crushing result in the smaller northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, but there were more difficult times in the North-West region. Read more
Local issues, such as affordable rents and public transport, are usually key issues for voters in state elections.
Manfred Gulner, head of the sociological agency Forsa, told Reuters that job security and the impact of dismantling coal-fired power plants were important issues for voters.
The HDZ’s victory in Schleswig-Holstein was seen in part because of the popularity of Prime Minister Daniel Gunther. At NRW, his candidate, Hendrik Vuest, took office only in October and did not have time to build followers.
Wuest said his party has a mandate to lead the state government.
“Voters in North Rhine-Westphalia have made a clear decision. We, @CDUNRW_de, have obviously won the election! ”Wuest said on Twitter.
Thomas Kuchati, the PSD candidate, said the results were below expectations, but said the PSD was open to talks with all democratic parties to build a government.
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Additional reports by Maria Sheehan. Edited by Alison Williams and Jane Merriman
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