In a dramatic political twist, Chancellor Olaf Scholz narrowly avoided a stinging defeat as exit polls suggested his Social Democratic Party (SPD) clung to power in Brandenburg, edging out the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) by just one or two percentage points. This election in Scholz’s home state, long a bastion for the SPD since reunification in 1990, saw the AfD close in, threatening to unseat the ruling party.
As polls closed, forecasts placed the SPD between 31-32% and the AfD dangerously close at 29-30%. With the AfD recently making historic gains in Thuringia and Saxony, an upset here could have severely dented Scholz’s hopes for re-election in next year’s federal race. Scholz, facing plummeting national polls and internal discord within his government, would have been particularly humiliated with a loss in his capital, Potsdam.
While Brandenburg’s SPD leader, Dietmar Woidke, distanced himself from Scholz’s troubled administration during the campaign, the chancellor had called for a unified stance to block the AfD’s growing influence. Describing their rise as a threat to Germany’s reputation and economy, Scholz’s concerns are echoed nationwide, as the AfD capitalizes on economic discontent, immigration fears, and the Ukraine war — especially in the former East.
Now the second most popular party in the country, the AfD’s rise signals a deepening political divide in Germany ahead of the crucial 2025 elections.
