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Tobias Hans (CDU) and Anke Rehlinger (SPD) on election night
Photo: Torsten Silz / dpa
It was a dream evening for Anke Rehlinger and the SPD in Saarland: Thanks to massive increases in votes, the Social Democrats and their top candidate clearly won the state elections - and according to the preliminary official results they can govern alone.
An initial analysis of voter migration by Infratest dimap shows how the SPD's success came about and which parties the Social Democrats hoarded the most voters from.
The election research institute calculates them on the basis of its own surveys, the provisional final result and other official statistics.
The values are a rough estimate of how many voters a party was able to retain compared to the previous election and how many migrated to and from other parties.
The evaluation shows that the
SPD
received a particularly large number of votes from people who voted for the CDU or the left in the 2017 election.
On balance, the Social Democrats gained 33,000 votes from the CDU and 17,000 from the left.
The SPD even gained votes from the AfD and the Greens.
On the other hand, the
CDU
of Prime Minister Tobias Hans lost votes to all other parties – apart from the left.
In addition, 19,000 votes migrated from the CDU to the non-voter camp.
The
left
could not gain votes from any party.
Particularly bitter for the party: 12,000 people who voted for the left in 2017 did not vote this time.
SPD particularly strong in the over 60 age group
The evaluation of voting behavior by age group shows that the SPD was by far the strongest party in every age group.
However, their share of votes increased with age.
While only around every third vote went to the Social Democrats among 18 to 24-year-olds, they received half of all votes in the 60+ age group.
SPD scores with people with a simple education
The analysis also shows that the SPD scored particularly well with people with a simple education.
Here they achieved an absolute majority; among people with a high level of education, 37 percent voted for the Social Democrats.
The difference between the FDP and the Greens is remarkable.
Both parties could hardly appeal to voters with a simple education - the votes came much more often from people with a high level of education.
No major differences in gender voting behavior
According to the analysis, the voting behavior of women and men hardly differs in Saarland.
The SPD and CDU are roughly equal in terms of voters, and the same applies to the Greens.
The AfD performs slightly better with men than with women.
This pattern has already been observed in other state elections and the last federal election.
At 62.3 percent, turnout this year was significantly lower than five years ago.
At that time it was 69.7 percent.
kuf/ulz