The far-right Alternative for Germany party made the biggest gains in vote share in Baden-WĆ¼rttemberg, tapping into anxieties about the stat
...anxieties about the stateās struggling auto industry. Germanyās center-left Greens scraped out a narrow victory in a key vote in Baden-WĆ¼rttemberg on Sunday, according to preliminary results, marking a stinging defeat for the parties in Chancellor Friedrich Merzās conservative -led coalition government. The outcome in Germanyās third-most populous state ā an industrial powerhouse home to Mercedes-Benz and Porsche ā deals a major blow to Merzās Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which had maintained a significant lead in the polls until the final days of the campaign, as well as to his center-left coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) ā which appears set to suffer its worst result in a federal or state election in its long history. But the Greens, under former federal Agriculture Minister Cem Ćzdemir, surged in polling ahead of the vote, ultimately coming first with 30.3 percent according to a preliminary count. The CDU came second with 29.7 percent ā an increase from the last election, but not enough to overtake the Greens. āWhat a tremendous comeback!ā Ćzdemir told his cheering supporters after the polls closed. The Greensā victory was due largely to the centrist Ćzdemirās popularity with voters, surveys indicated. The vote in Baden-WĆ¼rttemberg is the first of five state elections and numerous local contests to take place across the country over the next several months in what Germans are calling a Superwahljahr (āsuper election yearā). The votes are widely seen as a key test of the national mood as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party seeks to overtake Merzās conservatives and secure big victories in two eastern states in September.
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