The state elections in Lower Saxony are taking place in the midst of the great inflationary crisis. The SPD clearly wins, the FDP is thrown out of the state parliament. An ex-MP calls the traffic light “political rape of the FDP”. Here you will find all the important voices of the protagonists on the election result.
Sattelberger wrote on Twitter: “My heart is bleeding. The traffic light coalition is a political rape of the FDP. But taming Red-Green was essential to keep the Republic safe from harm. Laschet was unthinkable at the time. But I would now put the coalition on tip and button, ”continued Sattelberger.
8:54 p.m .: The Greens chairman Omid Nouripour has appealed to the traffic light coalition partners to show unity to the outside world after the different performances in the Lower Saxony elections. “We have a relationship of trust within the coalition. I admit, sometimes it’s louder on stage than backstage. It shouldn’t be like that and vice versa. Everyone should take a look at their own noses,” he told Phoenix TV on Sunday evening.
“The bottom line is that the cooperation is good – despite all the differences that we have. Therefore, I assume that the responsibility that the traffic light coalition has assumed, which is really enormous in these times, will now continue to be accepted by everyone from all sides to the best of their knowledge and belief.”
8:42 p.m .: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) congratulated Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil on the election success. “The result speaks a clear language,” wrote Scholz on Sunday evening in the short message service Twitter. “Citizens trust you to plan ahead in Lower Saxony in the future.” Scholz explained that he was doing the same. “Lower Saxony stays in good hands.”
8:41 p.m .: Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) congratulated Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil on his electoral success. “Good choice in Lower Saxony. Congratulations to Stephan Weil,” Tschentscher tweeted. He spoke of a strong mandate for the SPD. “Dear Stephan, good luck in forming a government and we look forward to continued good cooperation in the north!”
8:22 p.m .: CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja is particularly concerned about the result of the AfD in the state elections in Lower Saxony and sees its cause in the work of the traffic light coalition and the SPD at the federal level. “The result of the AfD is bitter because it is above all a party that has no real answer to any social question that is now playing a role. They don’t have any answers to rising prices or the question of the energy crisis, but they benefit from the zigzag course of the federal government and the AfD result is largely the responsibility of the federal SPD,” says Czaja in an interview with the television station phoenix the state election.
8:15 p.m .: The first parliamentary manager of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Thorsten Frei, congratulated Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) on the election victory. “Stephan Weil obviously benefited from the fact that he clearly distanced himself from the federal SPD,” said the CDU politician on Sunday evening. He wished the election winner “a happy hand for Lower Saxony”. Weil did a good job – “also thanks to the CDU government participation” – and is popular with the population. Frei paid tribute to the defeated CDU top candidate Bernd Althusmann. He showed a special commitment during the election campaign.
8.10 p.m .: Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil promises a return to a red-green coalition in the state after the state elections. “If there is a basis for this, then what I said before the election also applies after the election,” said the SPD’s top candidate on Sunday evening on ARD. But Weil also emphasized that he wanted to wait for the preliminary official final result. Projections saw a narrow majority for the SPD and the Greens early on Sunday evening.
Before the election, Weil had spoken out in favor of a new edition of red-green. The SPD and CDU are currently governing in a grand coalition with Weil at the helm.
7.46 p.m .: After the poor performance in the state elections in Lower Saxony, the FDP wants to make a stronger impression in the traffic light coalition in the federal government. “The role and voice of the FDP in this coalition must be even more clearly recognizable in the future than it has been up to now,” stressed General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai on Sunday in ARD’s “Berliner Runde”.
The traffic light coalition must talk, dealing with each other does not go on like this. Specifically, Djir-Sarai called the dispute over the debt brake. “A coalition will not work if two partners are constantly coming up with ideas on how to spend even more money and even more money and others have to constantly deal with the question of how to organize and finance the whole thing,” he emphasized. “In my view, for example, it will no longer work that way.” The FDP still has “big problems with this coalition”.
7.40 p.m .: The deputy CDU chairman Carsten Linnemann sees no mistakes by party leader Friedrich Merz in the Lower Saxony state election campaign. “If Friedrich Merz hadn’t been so committed, in my opinion, the result would have been worse,” he said on Sunday, referring to the CDU defeat in the state elections. In times of crisis, people vote for those in power. “Mr. Weil played this official bonus to the fullest, so congratulations.”
After its defeat in the 2021 federal election, the CDU has not yet reached its goal, said Linnemann, referring to the federal party. “We have to get to 30 percent quickly, it will take a while.”
7.30 p.m .: The Greens politician Jürgen Trittin also attributes the good result of the AfD in the state elections in Lower Saxony to statements by the CDU federal chairman Friedrich Merz. The AfD could thank Merz, said the former Federal Environment Minister on Sunday evening.
“His tirades against the admission of Russian conscientious objectors, his speeches about Ukrainian women above all as social tourists only had one effect,” said Trittin: “It didn’t help the democratic, right-centre parties, but the anti-democrats of the AfD. Then people ran to the original. And maybe you can learn from it on the part of the CDU. One should not make the right strong with such issues.”
Trittin celebrated the election result of the Greens. His party was the only one of the Berlin traffic light parties to win, he emphasized. The task now is to implement the energy transition more intensively.
7.20 p.m .: The Lower Saxony AfD top candidate Stefan Marzischewski-Drewes has made the policy of the Berlin traffic light coalition in the smoldering energy crisis responsible for the success of his party in the Lower Saxony state elections. “We deal with the facts, free of ideology. In the current energy crisis, the question is not whether nuclear energy is safe or unsafe, it is about preventing the blackout. People understood that,” said Marzischewski-Drewes on Sunday evening on ARD. His party received a lot of encouragement for it.
At the same time, he rejected allegations that his party was at odds. “We are no longer at odds. We’ve been closed since May – also at the federal level.” According to projections, the AfD was able to improve its result from 6.2 to over 11 percent.
7.14 p.m .: Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) praised the electoral success of the Social Democrats under Prime Minister Stephan Weil in Lower Saxony as “a strong result in difficult times”. “Stephan Weil worked on solving the problems with concrete proposals such as the energy price brake, while the CDU tried to use people’s worries and fears for election campaign purposes,” Schwesig explained on Sunday evening. The election shows that good and reliable government work pays off. She looks forward to further cooperation.
7.12 p.m .: With cheers, applause and confetti, the AfD attachment celebrated its own success in the state elections at the party’s election party in Isernhagen near Hanover. There was loud cheering on Sunday evening when the forecasts became known, but also for the poor performance of political opponents, especially the FDP. “It is not a tragedy when the FDP is thrown out of the state parliament, but a divine providence,” said Deputy Federal Chairman Stephan Brandner into the microphone. “A good Pils has 4.9 percent, that should be enough for the FDP.”
The state chairman of the AfD in neighboring Saxony-Anhalt, Martin Reichardt, also targeted the FDP at the election party. “If the FDP is kicked out, that’s the biggest victory for Germany.”
6:59 p.m .: According to party leader Christian Lindner, the disappointing election result for the FDP in Lower Saxony is also a result of participation in a coalition with the SPD and the Greens in the federal government. The party was unable to give its campaigners from Berlin a tailwind, Lindner said on Sunday evening. “Because many of our supporters are strangers to this coalition.”
Lindner emphasized: “We are in the traffic light coalition because of state political responsibility, not because the SPD and the Greens are so close to us in terms of the content of their convictions.” Kraft then not recognize and believe that we are now also a left-wing party and no longer center.”
“We suffered a setback in partisan politics today, but we have a responsibility to this country. I swore an oath of office, I have my liberal convictions, we have our liberal program. But we are also aware of our responsibility for this country and its people.” The FDP wanted to prevent a “left coalition” in Hanover. “Lower Saxony will go to the left, that was what we wanted to prevent.”
6:55 p.m .: Lower Saxony’s FDP top candidate Stefan Birkner believes that the Liberals will enter the state parliament, despite the initially very tight election result. “Now it’s time to keep your nerves,” said the state chairman on Sunday evening shortly after the announcement of the first projection in Hanover. The Free Democrats saw this with 5.0 percent of the votes – with a single tenth of a percentage point less, the party would be kicked out of the state parliament. “Personally, I am very confident that we will see the result that we will be members of the next Lower Saxony state parliament.” Birkner said that the outcome of the election “was not expected to be quite as exciting”.
6:53 p.m .: SPD leader Lars Klingbeil expects a red-green coalition in Lower Saxony after the state elections. This decision will not be made in the federal government, but in the state, he emphasized on Sunday in Berlin. But it will probably be enough for such a government by the SPD and the Greens. “And then I’m sure that this government coalition, which has worked together very successfully in Lower Saxony for a long time in recent years, will exist again,” said Klingbeil, who himself comes from Lower Saxony.
The success of Prime Minister Stephan Weil also strengthens the SPD at federal level. “You can say that this is also a joint success – a success that is also good for us here at the federal level,” said Klingbeil. The result for the SPD feels “very good”, especially in the current turbulent times.
6.50 p.m .: The Lower Saxony AfD state chairman Frank Rinck described the departure of his party in the Lower Saxony state election as a clear electoral success. His party almost doubled its election results, Rinck said on Sunday evening on NDR television. “It has little to do with protest. It has to do with the fact that people no longer want this type of politics. The people in our country want a policy that brings security of supply, that brings energy security, and that was not the case with the old parties.” According to projections, the AfD was able to improve its result from 6.2 to over 11 percent.
6.49 p.m .: The FDP General Secretary in Lower Saxony, Konstantin Kuhle, sees the poor performance in the state elections as an effect of federal politics. Kuhle spoke of difficult times on Sunday evening on NDR. “That’s because the FDP is in a government alliance with two left-wing parties.” The party has to get used to that. Kuhle said that the debt brake in Germany should be adhered to despite high spending on the energy crisis. According to the forecasts and a first extrapolation, the FDP has to fear about 5.0 percent about re-entering the state parliament in Hanover.
6.47 p.m .: The CDU top candidate Bernd Althusmann has the SPD and Stephan Weil: “We have not achieved our election goal. The voters have given the SPD a clear government mandate.”
6:38 p.m .: FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki justified his party’s poor performance in the state elections in Lower Saxony with the policy of the traffic light coalition and the role of the FDP in it. A significant proportion of the FDP voters in Lower Saxony are still alienated by the traffic lights in Berlin and the role of the FDP, said Kubicki on Sunday evening after the vote.
You got off to a good start at the traffic lights, then Russia’s attack on Ukraine happened. He mentioned energy supplies, inflation and concerns about whether the peace could be maintained. “At any rate, there have been no reasonable answers to this so far. We’ll have to work on that or this traffic light will get into rough water.” Personnel issues didn’t play a role after this election, said Kubicki.
6:36 p.m .: Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Boris Pistorius sees a clear government mandate for the SPD after the state elections. With a gap of four to six percent to the CDU, nobody should have any doubts about that, said the SPD politician after the first forecasts on Sunday evening in the state parliament in Hanover. You have to wait for the rest of the evening. “But after this result there should be no doubt that Stephan Weil is the one who will lead the next government.”
With a view to possible coalitions, Pistorius said he very much wished that it would be enough for red-green. However, it goes without saying that talks should also be held with all democratic parties.
6:32 p.m .: Left leader Janine Wissler expressed disappointment at the poor performance of her party in the state elections in Lower Saxony. But the chairwoman of the federal party on Sunday was also combative in her first reaction on Sunday evening. There will be at least three state elections next year, and preparations will be made for them. “It needs a strong left-wing opposition in parliament, not only at federal level but also in the federal states, and that’s what we’re fighting for.”
According to initial forecasts in Lower Saxony, the left failed to enter the state parliament again. Five years ago, the party had 4.6 percent of the vote. The Left Party has only been represented once in the Lower Saxony state parliament, from 2008 to 2013.
For the party it is the fourth defeat in four state elections this year. In Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia, too, she had missed out on entering the state parliament. In 2021, she only entered the Bundestag with the strength of her parliamentary group because she won three direct mandates in Berlin and Leipzig.
6:26 p.m .: Green leader Omid Nouripour was pleased with the expected performance of his party in the state elections in Lower Saxony. “Despite adverse circumstances,” the Greens had their best result ever there, said the co-chair of the federal party on Sunday evening. The Greens are now ready to take responsibility in Lower Saxony. His personal hope is that the FDP will move into the state parliament. The results of the AfD are “terrifying” for democracy. Everyone is called upon to stand up to him. The traffic light coalition in Berlin is doing this and working together in a spirit of trust.
6:21 p.m .: CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja: “It’s not a nice result. We don’t have to beat around the bush. Nevertheless, we are grateful for the committed election campaign that was carried out. Stephan Weil is the clear winner of the election. We congratulate him on that. He has clearly separated himself from federal politics. He didn’t make the mistake of going to an election poster with the Federal Chancellor.” The official bonus helped Weil. You got a stronger result than in the federal elections in Lower Saxony. But not strong enough. “Unfortunately, the AfD has gained,” says Czaja, blaming the government’s policies.
6.15 p.m .: AfD federal leader Timo Chrupalla: “We appeared united as a federal and state party. Our supporters did a great campaign. We are pleased that we were able to double our earnings.” Chrupalla says the inflation is a result of misguided government policy. And that was clearly addressed and was therefore successful. “We need a cheap and, above all, secure energy supply.” To do this, the nuclear power plants must be kept running and cheap gas imported from Russia. That is the will of the citizens.
6.10 p.m .: SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert cheers on ARD about the election result in Lower Saxony: “This is a clear election victory for Stephan Weil and the SPD Lower Saxony. Today, however, a style of politics has also won: one that seeks common ground and does not try to fumble around for its own staging.”
