EUROPEUS

The results in Lower Saxony were not surprising with an undisputed victory of the current and popular Prime Minister Christian Wulff (CDU) who is already considered to be the legitimate successor of Angela Merkel. The only surprises in Lower Saxony were the very low score of the socio-democrat SPD (30,3 %) and the entry of the new leftist party Die Linken in the Hanover parliament.

The situation is very different in Hessen. The campaign of Prime Minister Roland Koch (CDU) war very much based on almost extreme right positions such as the set-up of boot camps for juvenile criminals and xenophobe declarations. Fortunately, German electors are not very receptive to this kind of cheap right wing populism and Koch dropped by some 12 % to 36,8 %. However, the SPD with top candidate Andrea Ypsilanti came in with 36,7 %, so that the question of the next Prime Minister in Hessen will be settled by the three “small” parties FDP, Die Grünen and Die Linken. The maths is simple: The traditional partners CDU and FDP do not have enough seats to claim the government lead. The other traditional partners, SPD and Die Grünen neither. However, SPD, Die Grünen AND Die Linken could form a government. Bad news for the SPD, though, because they refuse to cooperate with Die Linken, considering that there is no room for a party left of the SPD. The next weeks will be marked in Hessen by a lot of coalition talks and the outcome is all but clear. In any case, it seems likely that Roland Koch has lost his job over his populist positions.