Niedersachsen wählt: Kommunalwahlen in Niedersachsen haben begonnen
Mehr als sechs Millionen Niedersachsen stimmen über ihre Politik vor Ort ab. Welche Partei kann sich wo durchsetzen?
On the day of the Niedersachsen communal elections, around 6.3 million people from the North Sea to the Harz are called to vote, beginning at 8:00 AM. Residents of counties, cities, and municipalities will elect local representatives, as well as Oberbürgermeister (mayors), Bürgermeister (mayors) and Landräte (regional councilors).
The total number of seats to be decided exceeds 29,000, with over 68,000 candidates running. These elections serve as an indicator of public sentiment in the predominantly Red-Orange governed Niedersachsen, especially in the wake of the crisis at Volkswagen, which holds significant importance for the state.
This is the first nationwide vote since Stephan Weil (both SPD) took over from Olaf Lies as Ministerpräsident (Prime Minister). Four AfD candidates are disqualified from running. The AfD's party affiliation is currently under observation by the Constitutional Protection Agency as a right-wing extremist entity. However, the party challenges this designation legally.
Four AfD candidates were not allowed to run due to doubts about their constitutional loyalty, such as AfD Landesvize Stephan Bothe for the Lüneburg Landrat position.
However, other AfD politicians, like Jessica Schülke, are eligible to run in the Oberbürgermeisterwahl in Hannover (Mayor election in Hannover). The strength of the SPD in its former stronghold of Hannover is in question. Although the Social Democrats were previously outperformed by the Greens, led by Belit Onay, in the 2019 Mayor's election, polls now show Onay leading once again.
If the SPD fails to secure a possible runoff or underperforms in other regions of Niedersachsen, it may fuel internal debates within the party regarding the appointment of Lars Klingbeil, the party's Vice Chancellor and Co-Chairman.
Other than the upcoming Landtag elections in Saxony-Anhalt and those in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the communal elections also serve as a gauge of the AfD's current standing in a western German region. At the 2021 Niedersachsen communal elections, the AfD only managed to achieve 4.6 percent at the county level, which is significantly lower than their performance in 2021. The party's legal status has been questioned by the Constitutional Protection Agency.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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