Greens defeat Merz’s CDU party in key regional elections with far-right AfD third

The far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) stands third force, doubling their results from the previous elections.

Thus, with practically all the votes counted, in the absence of knowing the results in an electoral district, The Greens obtained 30.2% of support, followed at half a point by the CDU, with 29.7%, and the AfD, with 18.8%, in third place.

El SPD, historic minimum

He Social Democratic Party (SPD) fell to a historic low receiving 5.5% of support, while the Liberal Party (FDP) and La Izquierda, with 4.4% of votes, respectively, are left out of the regional Parliament.

The Greens candidate to succeed the current head of Government of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, after 15 years at the head of the regional Government and two legislatures in alliance with the conservatives, Cem Özdemirhad already announced this Sunday, after knowing the first projections, that he was betting on reissue the coalition with the CDU.

Regardless of the final result, “it will and must be a partnership between equalsone that takes into account the good of the federated state,” he said.

He referred to the successes achieved in the last 15 years, a “common success” of which the Conservatives have every reason to be as proud as the Greens, he said.

The conservative candidate, Manuel Hagel, For his part, he recalled that his party’s objective was to become the most voted force in order to form a government led by the CDU.

“There is nothing to discuss about it: “This is a defeat for us,” declared, although he highlighted that his party achieved considerable progress compared to the previous elections and obtained its best result since 2011.

AfD doubles votes

Meanwhile, the AfD candidate, Markus Frohnmaiercelebrated the “great success” for its formation in these elections, in which the other parties “in essence, made no progress”, the liberals were expelled from the regional Parliament and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) barely exceeds the 5% threshold, he said.

“One thing has become very clear in these elections: Baden-Württemberg actually wants a conservative majority. “The CDU and the AfD together would have enough votes for this conservative policy.”he defended.

Although the far-right formation did not achieve its goal of exceeding 20% of the votes for the first time in a federal state in western Germany, the co-president of the party, Tino Chrupalla, spoke of “a great success” with which they are “very satisfied” and which places his force in third place and as the largest opposition party in the regional chamber.

In this sense, he pointed out that the results show that his party has already established itself in Baden-Württemberg, a stronghold of the Greens and the CDU, and spoke of “a very good start for the 2026 election year.”

2026, a key electoral year

Since 2011, The Greens are at the head of the Government in Baden-Württembergwhen Kretschmann, the only green prime minister of a German state, managed to break the hegemony of the CDU that had begun in 1953.

In the regional elections held in Baden-Württemberg five years ago, the Greens won a record result with 32.6% of the votes, while the CDU fell to a historic low, with 24.1%, and the AfD added 9.7% of support, still behind the SPD (11%) and the FDP (10.5%), and with The Left (3.6%) that did not manage to access parliament.

Around 7.7 million people were called to the polls this Sunday in these elections to elect the new composition of the regional chamber, in which the participation rose to 69.9%.

The regional elections in Baden-Württemberg inaugurate the election year in Germanywhere elections to the regional parliament will also be held in the federated states of Rhineland-PalatinadoMarch 22; Saxony-Anhalton September 6, and Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, on the 20th of that same month.