On October 9th, a new state parliament will be elected in Lower Saxony. These are the most important top candidates of the parties for the state elections.
The 63-year-old SPD politician has governed the country since the beginning of 2013 – first with the Greens and most recently with the CDU. If re-elected, he could break Ernst Albrecht’s record as Prime Minister with the longest term in office in Lower Saxony. Weil’s declared goal is a return to red-green, but he is also open to a traffic light with the Greens and the FDP.
Weil has also been mentioned several times as a candidate for federal political offices. In 2019, for example, there was a possible candidacy as SPD federal chairman. However, Weil did not compete and justified this with his connection to Hanover. That may only have been the official version, but the state capital actually plays a major role in his life. Although Weil was born in Hamburg, he came to Hanover at the age of six – and after studying law in Göttingen he returned there as a lawyer and judge. He finally embarked on his political career as Hanover’s chamberlain and mayor.
To many observers, Weil still seems more like a civil servant – some describe his style as calm and friendly, others as boring and conflict-averse. Confidentiality and consensus are more important to him than pithy sayings. Political competitors see this as a weakness, but it matters to many voters: When it comes to the question of who should become prime minister, Weil is regularly ahead.
The 55-year-old economics minister is trying to present himself as an innovator after almost ten years with Stephan Weil, but he is anything but a new face. He was Minister of Education from 2010 to 2013, and in 2017 he tried to replace Weil for the first time. That failed, although the CDU was ahead in the polls for a long time. Since then, Althusmann has been Weil’s deputy as economics minister. The two get along well on a personal level, they say. Even in their mostly technocratic appearance, the two don’t take much from each other.
Althusmann was born in Oldenburg and grew up near Lüneburg, after which he became an officer in the German Armed Forces and studied education and business administration. There was excitement about his doctorate in 2011 – the Minister of Education at the time admitted “possible technical errors”, but denied having deliberately deceived. The University of Potsdam came to the same conclusion, Althusmann was allowed to keep the title. Between his ministerial posts, he headed the representation of the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation for Namibia and Angola in Africa for two and a half years.
With a view to possible coalitions, Althusmann wants to keep all options open, including a renewed alliance with the SPD. However, if he does not become Prime Minister again, his CDU state presidency is likely to be called into question after six years in office.
The 36-year-old is officially part of a top duo in her party, but she is number 1 on the list and is much more publicly present than co-candidate Christian Meyer. At the beginning of 2013, she became the youngest member of parliament at the time, but soon had to give up her mandate for several months for health reasons. She also dropped out of her degree in political science. In the summer of 2014 she returned to the state parliament, and in 2020 she took over as parliamentary group leader. Hamburg formulates precisely and is respected across party lines – both of which could benefit her in any coalition negotiations.
The 49-year-old lawyer has a lot of experience in state politics – from 2008 to 2012 he was State Secretary in the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment, after which he took over the ministerial post there for around a year. The native Swiss has held the state chairmanship of the FDP since 2011, and since 2017 he has also been the parliamentary group leader. For the coalition agreement of the traffic light in the federal government, Birkner played a leading role in negotiating the area of environmental protection and nature conservation. At the state level, however, he rejected an alliance with the SPD and the Greens after the 2017 election. Birkner is also a brother-in-law of the Green Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck.
The Gifhorn specialist in radiology and general medicine is a newcomer to state politics. So far he has been the parliamentary group leader of the AfD in Gifhorn. In the party, which has often been at odds in recent years, he strives for objectivity and, in addition to sharp criticism of the government, also tries to bring in his own proposals. With a view to the election, the 57-year-old has set himself the goal of doubling the AfD result from 2017 – 6.2 percent. The AfD head of state, Frank Rinck, who was elected just a few months ago, gave up the top candidate because of his Bundestag mandate.
