Germany’s Social Democrats hope for upset in Saarland state election

Voting was under way on Sunday in the German state of Saarland, in the first regional election to take place since national polls shook up the political establishment last year.

Saarbrücken, Germany (dpa) – Voting was under way on Sunday in the German state of Saarland, in the first regional election to take place since national polls shook up the political establishment last year.

Around 750,000 people are eligible to vote in the western region, which borders France and Luxembourg and is Germany’s smallest federal state by land mass, apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg.

The conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) have dominated Saarland’s legislature in the state capital Saarbrücken for almost 23 years – but this election could break with that tradition as their centre-left rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD), lead comfortably in the polls.

The Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be hoping to build on the momentum of the September 2021 national elections, which dealt a historic blow to the CDU at federal level. In that vote, the SPD also outperformed the conservatives within Saarland for the first time in 16 years.

Anke Rehlinger is campaigning to become the SPD’s state premier there, a role currently held by the CDU’s Tobias Hans. Rehlinger is his deputy in the state’s current coalition government.

If her campaign is successful, their CDU-SPD grand coalition could remain in place, but with the CDU relegated to junior status.

Polls also suggest that the SPD could form an entirely new government with the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP), modelled on the national coalition led by Scholz.

However, the Greens and FDP would first need to surpass the 5% threshold to get seats in the local parliament, where they are not currently represented.

The first of four state elections set to take place this year, the Saarland vote is seen as the first litmus test for the national government – known as the traffic-light coalition due to the three parties’ red, yellow and green colours

A loss for Hans would also deal a blow to Friedrich Merz, the new leader of the CDU, who has pledged to breathe new life into the party after it plummeted to its lowest result ever in the September elections to the Bundestag.

Coronavirus issues dominated the Saarland campaign early on, including questions about how fast to relax restrictions and the need for compulsory vaccinations.

But after the start of the war in Ukraine in February, high energy and petrol prices moved to the top of voters’ concerns.

All candidates want relief measures for citizens, with Hans focussing on a “petrol price brake.” Rehlinger has advocated for faster expansion of renewables in order to become independent of Russian energy.

However, Covid-19 is still shaping the election. Sunday’s vote is taking place as Germany records its highest infection rates of the pandemic yet.

Earlier in the campaign, Rehlinger, 45, had to cancel a number of appearances after catching the coronavirus, prompting her team to hit the trail with a cardboard cut-out of the politician.

Hans, 44, also caught the virus and stayed home while canvassing with the help of a mobile robot he could control remotely dubbed “Robi-Tobi.” The contraption – basically a large computer tablet mounted on a post – allowed Hans to interact with voters.

Beyond politics, Rehlinger has another claim to fame to Germany: She still holds the national record in shot put (16.03 metres) and the youth record in discus throw (49.18 metres), which she achieved in 1996.