The Greens have gained in the state elections in Brandenburg. According to projections, there is also the first direct mandate for the party in East Germany. Marie Schäffer won the Potsdam I constituency. With only 144 votes, she has overtaken the previous mandate owner Klara Geywitz. The SPD direct candidate applies together with Finance Minister Olaf Scholz for the national presidency of the SPD.
Schäffer won 27 percent of the vote, Geywitz came to 26.7 percent. Geywitz congratulated Schaffer on Twitter. "It was an exciting election campaign," she wrote.
I cordially congratulate @MarieSchaeff on the election victory. It was an exciting election campaign.
- Klara Geywitz (@klara_geywitz) September 1, 2019Woidke and Kretschmer get direct mads
Brandenburg Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke won the direct mandate in his constituency. 36.2 percent of the first votes in Spree-Neisse I accounted for the SPD politician. In 2014, he still had 49.5 percent of the votes to unite. With only a few percentage points behind him in the election of AfD candidate Steffen Kubitzki followed with 32.4 percent.
The SPD has suffered significant losses in Brandenburg. Nevertheless, the party of Woidke remains the strongest force in front of the AFD (all results can be found here).
Also in Saxony, a new state parliament was elected. Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, like his Brandenburg counterpart, won the direct mandate in his constituency.
Kretschmer prevailed with 45.8 percent of the vote before the AFD candidate Sebastian Wippel (37.9 percent). The constituency was considered to be highly competitive. In the second votes, the AfD was 37.9 percent ahead of the CDU with 35.2 percent.
AfD politician Wippel was already this year as AfD candidate for mayor election in Görlitz started, but was also inferior. In the 2017 general election Kretschmer had lost his direct mandate in Görlitz to the AfD candidate Tino Chrupalla.
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