German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), which has been in charge of Berlin’s city hall for more than 20 years, suffered a resounding defeat in the city-state’s local elections on Sunday, being clearly outvoted. conservatives, according to polls conducted at the exit of polling stations and broadcast by the ARD and ZDF stations, AFP and Reuters reported, cited by Agerpres.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won the local parliament election in Berlin with about 28% of the vote, compared to 18% for the SPD, a result that, if the vote count confirms the estimate, would be the worst ever for the Social Democrats. The German capital in the post-war period.

In these polls, the Social Democrats were roughly on par with the Greens of Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock.

The liberals from the formation of the FDP, members along with the Greens and SPD of the ruling coalition of the federal executive led by Scholz, have about 5% and risk not getting into the regional parliament in Berlin if they pass at the end of the vote count. not reach at least this percentage.

The left-wing Die Linke party has 12.5%, and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has about 9%.

Sunday’s poll is a repeat of the 2021 poll, which was declared invalid due to irregularities.

Berlin is currently governed by a tripartite coalition consisting of the SPD, the Greens and Die Linke. The results of these elections would allow this coalition to be preserved, as well as a coalition made up of only Social Democrats and Christian Democrats, but negotiations are expected to be difficult.

Meanwhile, CDU candidate Kai Wegner asked for a mandate to form a regional executive, as his party won the election.

Chancellor Scholz’s party seems to have been sanctioned in this election by the people of Berlin because of the scenes of chaos and violence that took place on New Year’s Eve in that city, which were mostly instigated by people with a “migration background”. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the federal government, Social Democrat Nancy Feiser, herself admitted.

The conservative opposition accused the municipal majority of not reacting to these incidents and started a debate about the failure of integration policies in areas with a significant immigrant population.

The results of these elections also confirm a trend that has recently been observed in Germany at the national level, namely the erosion of the Social Democrats in power and the rise in popularity of the conservative opposition and the far right in the context of rising inflation. , a heated debate about the supply of weapons to Ukraine and the fear of public opinion before the increase in the number of migrants.