Success in Brandenburg

SPD seeks coalition partner, but the CDU sulks

Woidke was able to prevent an AfD victory in Brandenburg.(Bild: AP)

The AfD has been prevented from making a breakthrough in eastern Germany. On the way to forming a new government in Brandenburg, the SPD wants to start exploratory talks this week if possible - but this could be more difficult than expected. 

The Social Democrats are open to talks with the CDU and BSW, said SPD state parliamentary group leader Daniel Keller on RBB-Inforadio on Monday. In the state elections in the German federal state of Brandenburg, the SPD led by Minister President Dietmar Woidke narrowly beat the AfD to become the strongest party once again. Woidke had staged the election campaign as a pure duel.

SPD narrowly ahead of right-wing AfD
According to the provisional official results, the Minister President achieved 30.9 percent of the vote with his SPD and thus achieved his declared goal of finishing ahead of the AfD. However, the far-right party also performed strongly with 29.2%.

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which was only founded a few months ago, came third with 13.5 percent, ahead of the CDU with 12.1 percent. The remaining "traffic light" parties were all thrown out of parliament. The FDP achieved less than one percent of the vote.

On forming a government, Keller said: "We want to make progress in the coming weeks." He did not want to hold exploratory talks with the AfD. CDU top candidate Jan Redmann ruled out any personal consequences. He does not want to resign from the state chairmanship of the Christian Democrats after the election defeat. "That would send the wrong signal," he said.

CDU politicians are generally upset about the election result. However, they see the SPD as being at fault. Woidke's strategy - us against the AfD - had weakened the democratic center. CDU MP Johann Wadephul said: "A few more seats for the CDU and Greens would have been more important than first place. So he (Woidke) has to govern with the BSW."

Traffic light badly battered
In the debate about the continuation of the traffic light coalition at federal level, SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert called for a clear signal from the FDP on Monday. "For us, it would be important for the FDP leadership to give us a clear message about where we stand," said Kühnert on ARD's Morgenmagazin.

FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki had said on Welt TV on election night that it would either be possible to "find a sensible common denominator in the traffic light coalition in the coming weeks or it would no longer make sense for the Free Democrats to continue to participate in this coalition".