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Cheers from the CDU: The Christian Democrats clearly became the strongest force in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / picture alliance / dpa
According to initial projections, the CDU won the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia more clearly than expected.
The party of incumbent Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst received 35 percent of the votes, an increase of two percentage points compared to the last election in 2017.
Challenger Thomas Kutschaty with his SPD came to 27.9 percent, a drop of 3.3 percentage points.
Before the election, polls had predicted a neck-and-neck race between the CDU and SPD.
The Greens recorded the most significant increase in votes.
With top candidate Mona Neubaur, the party achieved 18.2 percent of the votes (+ 11.8 percentage points).
The FDP, which currently governs Düsseldorf as a junior partner with the CDU in a black-yellow coalition, only just manages to re-enter the state parliament.
According to extrapolations, the liberals only get 5.4 percent (- 7.2 percentage points).
It will be similarly tight for the AfD, which comes to 5.5 percent (- 1.9 percentage points).
The left clearly missed entering the state parliament with two percent of the votes (-2.9 percentage points).
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