Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia elections: Chancellor Scholz slapped, Greens triumph

BERLIN – It is difficult not to interpret it as a slap in the face of the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz. It is a real plebiscite for the Greens, the party of the foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and his colleague from Economics, Robert Habeck. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous and most influential land in Germany, the CDU triumphs with 35 percent of the votes and nearly nine points behind the SPD. The Social Democrats suffer their worst result in history, in the old industrial heart of Germany. The Greens jumped to 18 per cent, almost tripling the 2017 result. The Fdp collapsed to 5 per cent and must even fear not to exceed the barrier to enter the parliament in Duesseldorf. The federal leader of the liberals, Christian Lindnerspeaks of a “disastrous defeat”.

To understand the scale of the blow, it is sufficient to remember that in October, after the federal elections won by Scholz, the Rhine SPD could still count on a ten-point advantage over its Christian-democratic rivals. Accomplice, too, a CDU stunned by the worst result in its history and torn apart by the war at the top. After the resignation of the former party president, candidate for chancellor and governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschetthe reins of the land had gone to Hendrik Wuest. Today’s triumph allows him to give the cards for the next regional government, but due to the collapse of the Liberals, the current CDU-FPD executive will not be able to be reconfirmed.

In short, Scholz’s honeymoon with the Germans seems to have evaporated. The leader of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia, Thomas Kuchaty, had involved the chancellor in his colorless election campaign; a counterproductive choice. After all, Scholz has been collecting increasingly negative results in the polls for weeks, thanks to the reluctance to support Ukraine on arms supplies and sanctions against Russia; a caution on a geopolitical level that has been universally interpreted as inability. On the other hand, the Greens now become the tip of the balance for any future coalition hypothesis in North Rhine-Westphalia and undoubtedly benefit from the popularity of the governing ministers, Baerbock and Habeck.