According to the political scientist Nils Bandelow, the historic defeat of the CDU in the Lower Saxony state elections can be attributed to a failed election campaign.
From the point of view of political scientist Nils Bandelow, the historic defeat of the CDU in the Lower Saxony state elections is linked to mistakes in the election campaign. “The CDU has not found its role,” said the professor of political science at the Technical University (TU) Braunschweig of the German Press Agency. “We know from surveys that a majority of the population was satisfied with the work of the state government. And this state government was perceived almost exclusively as an SPD state government.”
SPD top candidate and Prime Minister Stephan Weil managed “to give the impression that he stands for stability, that he can be trusted, and Althusmann was not even perceived as part of the government”. The CDU top candidate Bernd Althusmann had announced his resignation as state chairman of the Christian Democrats on Sunday evening. The Lower Saxony CDU had its worst result in more than 60 years in the state elections on Sunday.
“The CDU has not managed to sell itself positively as the governing party in Lower Saxony and thus become part of what people are apparently looking for in these times of crisis, namely stability, reliability,” analyzed the political scientist.
During the election campaign, the CDU was perceived as an opposition party, in opposition to the federal government and Stephan Weil. “The CDU in Lower Saxony has also presented itself on the right,” said Bandelow. “In the end, the AfD may have benefited more than the CDU.” However, this still somewhat speculative thesis would have to be examined more closely.
