Baku, September 20, AZERTAC
Voters in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will elect a new state parliament Sunday, with Premier Manuela Schwesig’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) running neck and neck, Anadolu Agency reports.
Polling stations open at 8 am and close at 6 pm local time (0600GMT-1600GMT). About 1.3 million people may vote, including 16- and 17-year-olds taking part in a state election there for the first time. First projections, based on exit polls, are due as soon as the stations close.
The ballot comes two weeks after the anti-immigration AfD won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt, its strongest showing in a German state. Sunday’s result will be watched to see whether that surge holds in another eastern region.
The latest poll by public broadcaster ZDF put the SPD at 37% and the AfD at 36% — a one-point lead after months in which the AfD had been ahead.
The socialist Left Party stood at 9%, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative CDU at 6%, just one point above the 5% threshold for entering the state parliament.
The environmentalist Greens were at 5%, followed by the left-populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) at 4%. Twenty-one percent of respondents were unsure.
What’s at stake
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a thinly populated state on the Baltic Sea, with Schwerin as its capital. The SPD has governed there since 1998 with changing partners.
Social Democrat Manuela Schwesig has been premier since 2017. In the 2021 election, her party won 39.6% and formed a coalition with the Left Party.
Her popularity extends beyond the party’s grassroots base, and a recent ZDF survey found that 61% would back her if the premier were elected by direct vote, compared with 30% for her AfD challenger.
Schwesig has made preventing an AfD majority the centerpiece of her campaign. She has said the choice is a strong SPD and a democratic coalition, or an AfD victory that would bring “extremists to power.”
The AfD’s candidate for premier, Leif-Erik Holm, has been a member of the federal parliament since 2017 and serves as the party’s economic spokesperson.
His campaign has focused on social and economic problems, and he has often accused the SPD-led government of having a “disastrous record.”
In Berlin, Sunday’s result will be seen as a barometer of the national mood and of whether Merz can hang on as chancellor after his support slid to historic lows.
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the CDU is polling at around 6% and risks falling below the 5% threshold needed to enter the state parliament — a result that would leave the party without seats in Schwerin for the first time since reunification.
Even if it clears the hurdle, anything under 9% would mark the CDU’s weakest postwar performance in a state election. The party finished first here in 1990 and 1994.
Merz has canceled a planned trip to New York for the UN General Debate so he can remain in the capital during and after the votes.
The chancellor and senior CDU leaders are scheduled to meet at party headquarters late Sunday, with broader deliberations continuing Monday. CDU lawmakers and their Bavarian sister party, the CSU, are due to gather two days later to discuss the outcome.