The SPD was helped by its popular leader in Brandenburg, Dietmar Woidke, whom more than 60 percent of voters said they viewed favorably. Woidke, who has served as the state’s premier since 2013, said he would resign if the SPD didn’t win the election.
“We achieved a historic come-from-behind victory,” a visibly relieved Woidke, whose party trailed the AfD by several points as recently as August, told his supporters Sunday night.
A key aspect of Woidke’s campaign strategy was to keep Scholz out of sight. Though the chancellor resides in the state, Woidke banned him from campaign events due to his deep unpopularity.
The SPD received an unexpected boost after the premier of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer of the CDU, endorsed Woidke, telling center-right voters it would make more sense to back the SPD and block the AfD than to support the CDU. The unorthodox move by Kretschmer, a popular figure in eastern Germany, appears to have helped push the SPD over the line, though it also contributed the CDU’s worst-ever result in the east.
The SPD’s victory came largely as a result of support from voters over 60, 37 percent of whom supported the party, according to exit polls. The AfD led the field among voters between the ages of 30 and 59, underscoring the inroads it has made in the German electorate in recent years.
AfD leaders blamed the media for their second-place finish, pointing in particular to what they regarded as skewed coverage by Germany’s powerful public broadcasters. Even so, Hans-Christoph Berndt, the AfD’s lead candidate in Brandenburg, predicted it was only a matter of time before the the party took power.
“Germany’s future is blue,” he said after the results came in, referring to the AfD’s party color. “The front for Germany stands.”
