Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats are holding an electoral test on Sunday, a regional vote in Lower Saxony, in Germany, which is worried about inflation, comments AFP, quoted by Agerpres.

6.1 million voters in the northwestern land are heading to the polls to renew the local parliament, which is dominated by a coalition between the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (UDC).

At the end of a campaign filled with energy issues, the final polls give the SPD a slight lead (between 31 and 33%) over the CDU (28%).

If she wins, SPD can hope to form a coalition with environmentalists, who are credited with third place (16%), and end the current coalition formed with conservatives.

For Chancellor Scholz, a possible first place would be cause for hope after a series of electoral setbacks suffered by the summer in other states.

Angela Merkel’s successor can count on popularity after the two terms of the current minister-president of the state, the experienced Stefan Weil.

The latter, however, admitted that this campaign was “the most difficult” in his career. “I have never read so many question marks and worries on the faces of citizens,” he admitted recently.

“The campaign was completely overshadowed by the energy theme”

A surge in energy prices pushed inflation to 10% in September, Germany’s highest in 70 years. In addition to falling purchasing power and an announced recession next year, Europe’s main economy fears a major blow to its industry.

Rising energy prices are the main source of concern in Germany for almost every second respondent (49%), compared to just 12% a year ago, according to a recent Ipsos survey.

In Lower Saxony, home to much of the country’s wind farms as well as automotive giant Volkswagen, Weil intends to focus on the transition to green energy.

The CDU, led by the country’s current finance minister Bernd Altusmann, is trying to overcome dissatisfaction with the policies promoted by Chancellor Scholz, despite the allocation of 200 billion euros to mitigate the rise in energy prices.

For the Christian Democrats, these regional elections should serve as a vote sanction against the coalition consisting of Social Democrats, environmentalists and liberals at the head of the country.

“The campaign was completely overshadowed by the issue of energy. In this context, the election is a full-scale poll” for Scholz’s government, political scientist Ursula Münch told AFP.

Other topics, such as the shortage of teachers and nursing staff or the diversification of agriculture, were hardly addressed.

The dispute over the Emsland nuclear power plant

The main disagreement between the candidates concerns the Emsland nuclear power plant located in this land, one of three still operating in Germany.

Conservatives oppose the government’s decision to close it at the end of the year, while the other two power plants benefited from a delay due to a lack of Russian gas, on which Germany was particularly dependent.

The head of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, who was criticized after recent statements against the alleged “social tourism” of Ukrainian refugees, is betting on the victory of this announced closure.

“The decision of the voters in Lower Saxony is a referendum on the continuation of the operation of the nuclear power plant” Emsland, which is important, he said, “so that 10 million families can be provided in complete safety.”

In this troubling context, the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) can be preferred. The AfD gathered several thousand supporters in a demonstration against price increases in Berlin on Saturday.

Polls put him at around 11%, almost double the 2017 figure (6%).

A good score for the AfD, however, faced with divisions within its ranks, will express “a protest vote that, until a few months ago, was thought to concern only the eastern German states,” stressed Ursula Münch.