In the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the CDU clearly wins, the SPD and FDP lose. The Greens are winners. FOCUS Online has collected press comments on the outcome of the election.
“Münchner Merkur”: The shadow of Putin’s attack on Ukraine hung so leadenly over the North Rhine-Westphalia election campaign that the polls there can certainly be described as a war election, with a clear result: the Left Party and AfD were punished for forces suspected by the voters clandestine kinship with the criminal in the Kremlin. Equally unsuccessful was SPD Chancellor Scholz’s attempt to fish for the voices of the fearful by talking about a possible nuclear war. This catapults the Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck into the role of Berlin’s shadow chancellor: he manages what the chancellor failed to do: to explain his policies to the citizens, to take them on a journey whose goal is far away and which will still demand many sacrifices from the people. The SPD will rightly blame the chancellor for the crash to the historically worst result in its heartland; because at the same time the anger at Scholz and the traffic lights is growing in the severely beaten FDP, their crisis is programmed.
Süddeutsche Zeitung: “There is no escape for the chancellor: The result of the election in North Rhine-Westphalia also represents an initial assessment of Olaf Scholz’s work. Not only is the German government’s handling of the war in Ukraine a dominant political issue these weeks. Scholz himself was heavily involved in the state election campaign. And the SPD’s top candidate, Thomas Kutschaty, has clearly backed the chancellor. Now the message is clearer than expected – and not nice for Olaf Scholz.
Surf tip: State elections in NRW 2022 – furious victory for libertine, but black and yellow is history – debacle for SPD and FDP, Greens cheer
“Augsburger Allgemeine”: The Chancellor’s motto for the next few months and beyond the next state election in Lower Saxony must be: dare more leadership. While the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia have received a boost from the two strongest traffic light ministers, Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock “, the NRW-FDP can’t say that. They had to fear for a long time to re-enter the Düsseldorf state parliament. “Together” is a Scholz word that is used a lot. This applies more than ever after the NRW elections.
Nürnberger Nachrichten: What’s next? There are quite a few of the Greens who want a black-green alliance – as a contrast and counter-proposal to the traffic light and also to emphasize the independence of the Greens. That would be a defeat for the traffic lights in the federal government. Ultimately, however, such a breakup of camps could be good for politicians and encourage everyone to govern better – the coalition in Berlin, but also state governments, who fear for their importance in times when foreign policy is dominating.
Weser Kurier: “The worst election result for the SPD in the history of North Rhine-Westphalia is first and foremost a resounding slap in the face for Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In contrast to the previous state elections in Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein, the result in Düsseldorf is not politically motivated, but primarily due to voters’ disappointment at the Chancellor’s hesitant and hesitant course on the Ukraine question. The result testifies more to the weakness of the chancellor than to the strength of the CDU prime minister.”
