German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party wins its first electoral test hands down

Just over a hundred days after coming to power, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party has won its first electoral test, a regional election in Saarland, hands down against crisis-ridden conservatives.

A change in the regions

The chancellor’s party won 43.5% of the vote, against 28.5% for the Christian Democrats of the CDU, at the head for more than 20 years of this small region of western Germany, according to first official results. The SPD would even obtain an absolute majority in the Land parliament, with 29 of the 51 seats, against 19 for the CDU.

The voters “clearly opted for a change at the head of their region”, reacted on Twitter Scholz, welcoming a “convincing victory”. The Social Democrats, at the head of the ruling coalition since the beginning of December, would thus gain more than 13 points compared to the previous election in 2017 in this Land, the smallest in Germany after the cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen.

A life-size test

Given as dying a few months ago, before winning a surprise victory in the general elections in September, the SPD will thus put an end to 23 years of conservative rule in this small border region of France.

This life-size test since the accession to power of Olaf Scholz, at the head of a coalition formed with environmentalists and liberals, is the first of an electoral “super-year” in Germany, marked by three other regional elections. . In five years, the Social Democrats have thus managed to completely reverse the trend with the CDU, which had clearly won in 2017 with more than 40% of the vote.