Germany: SPD seeks coalition after slim win in Brandenburg

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party leader in Brandenburg, Robert Crumbach, said his party will not "make any careless decisions," in terms of whether it would join the SPD in governing or not.

Crumbach said his party will convene on Wednesday to chart out a path forward, after coming in third in Sunday's state election andpossibly becoming kingmaker in the future of the eastern state's governance.

The BSW leader said nothing could be ruled out. "It can also work, for example, that there is a minority government with only 44 votes," Crumbach added.

BSW General Secretary Stefan Roth weighed in on his party's results in Brandenburg, especially in light of its third place finishes in Saxony and Thuringia earlier this year.

"This makes the BSW the most successful party foundation in decades and we are writing party history here," Roth added.

Following the state elections in Brandenburg, the far-right AfD celebrated its second-place showing, and its leaders sought to put the result into the context of previous wins in Thuringia and Saxony.

"We are already a people's party," said co-federal spokesperson Alice Weidel in Berlin on Monday.

"The voters have given us a mandate to govern in three federal states," she added.

Co-leader Tino Chrupalla dubbed the other political parties "cartel parties," who are deliberately preventing the AfD from governing. The other parties have declined to enter into coalitions with the AfD.

According to the opinion research institute infratest dimap, the center-left SPD in Brandenburg was most successful among voters over 60 years of age, while the AfD was the most voted party among young people.

Weidel said this result meant that the AfD was "the party of the future" in Germany.

The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Brandenburg said that it would not seek talks with its former coalition partner, the SPD. That means the center-right party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel will likely be the opposition in the eastern state.

"For us, there is no government mandate. There is no majority for the SPD and CDU," CDU General Secretary Gordon Hoffmann said.

Hoffmann said his party would still participate in talks if it is called upon to do so and said it would prepare for all scenarios. But he said the numbers didn't add up for there to be a majority that included the CDU. The center-right party has ruled out governing with the AfD.

"That's why I don't see us in government, but our mandate from the voters is opposition  and we will and we will fulfill it," Hoffmann added.

SPD state premier Dietmar Woidke defended his campaign's efforts, saying it had been a "hard fight" that had begun more than 12 months ago to win the regional election in Brandenburg.

"From the very beginning we were the only political force in Brandenburg that wanted to win against the AfD," Woidke said, adding that this determination was likely what helped them celebrate a win on Sunday night.

The veteran Social Democrat politician pointed out that his campaign was mocked for taking on the fight to the AfD.

"Others did not trust this, instead tried to fight for second place, but i think that what this election result also shows is that the people of Brandenburg do not want to have anything to do with those who are extremists, who have no solutions for our country, who instead want to divide our society," Woidke said in allusion to the far-right AfD.

Woidke also attributed his win to his government's work and the good results it had produced for the people of Brandenburg, particularly in the economy.

Going forward, Woidke said the next step was to explore how to build a government, mentioning both the BSW and the CDU as potential partners.

"My goal is clear. It is to have a stable government that continues to ensure that in the future Brandenburg can make good progress and that its people can live better, step by step."

SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert said talks the newly formed left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht alliance (BSW) were in sight.

"It's simple mathematics now," Kühnert told German public media on Monday.

The BSW is a movement founded this year by Sahra Wagenknecht, who was a leader of the Left party. Wagenknecht created her own party, BSW, to reorient left-wing voters with a message critical of the country's immigration policies and Germany's support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

BSW was successful in Brandenburg, coming in third with 13.5%, ahead of the CDU which garnered 12.1%. No other parties made it into the Potsdam state parliament, including Wagenknecht's former party, the Left.

The SPD and BSW have 46 of the 88 seats in the new state parliament, which would represent a majority. 

Kühnert said that as the SPD has ruled out any cooperation with the AfD "and as it is not enough with the CDU together, talks will certainly now take place with the BSW in Brandenburg."

Although AfD came in second and will not be considered by other parties for coalition, it will now be a so-called "Sperrminorität," or blocking minority, on it's own.

With 30 seats out of the chamber's 88, the AfD can block big bills by itself and that includes two-thirds majority decisions.

In a regional parliament, a two-thirds majority is required to change or modify some decisions of great consequence like changing the constitution or making appointments to bodies key to the functioning of democracy and the rule of law.

Although the rule was designed to stop any one party capturing the state and transforming it, as the Nazi's did in 1933, it can also provide outsize influence for parties to disrupt the governing process, should one choose to do so.

Germany's center-left SPD staged a last minute comeback in Sunday's regional elections in the eastern state of Brandenburg.

The Social Democrats were expected to come in second, and had been polling at 20% weeks ago. On Sunday, they won the election with 30.9%, according to provisional official results by the State Electoral Commissioner.

Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which had been leading the polls for the past two years in the state, won 29.2% of the vote.

This means the AfD has grown some 5.7% since the last Brandenburg election five years ago.

The results come after AfD became the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since WWII, after coming out on top in the eastern state of Thuringia earlier in September. 

The AfD's platform has capitalized on growing voter dissatisfaction over high cost-of-living, immigration and the war in Ukraine.

Brandenburg's election drew a record turnout for the federal state, with 72.9% of voters participating in the election.

The surprise results appeared to be driven by a rejection of AfD. More than three-quarters of those who voted for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) said they did so as a vote against  AfD, according to the exit poll published by broadcaster ARD.

Brandenburg's long-time incumbent state premier, the SPD's Dietmar Woidke, had avoided campaigning with fellow party member Olaf with Scholz, Germany's current chancellor who is now the least popular chancellor on record.

Distancing himself from the SPD brand, Woidke instead made the election a referendum on his own personal popularity, vowing to step down if his party didn't come out on top.

jcg/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)