Gatherings - CSU claims 39.7% dominance in Bavaria; AfD follows as second-most powerful party.
In recent European elections, the CSU has emerged as the foremost political force in Bavaria, but this time their majority is not over 40%. The Christians received 39.7% of the votes following the preliminary final result. Although they didn't maintain the result from five years ago (40.7%), they did surpass their outcome from the 2023 state election (37%).
The second most potent influence in Bavaria, according to the data published by the state electoral officer after counting all districts on the internet, was the AfD, with 12.6% of the votes. Following that were the Greens (11.8%), the SPD (8.9%), the Free Voters (6.8%), the FDP (3.9%), and the Left Alliance (3.8%). Voter turnout reached 65.5%, a substantial increase from 2019 (60.8%).
As per a preliminary calculation by Infratest-dimap, the CSU received approximately 6.4% of the votes nationally (at 23:04). The party anticipated increasing their number of seats in the European Parliament from its current six to seven.
CSU leader Markus Söder evaluated the European election outcome as a definitive vote against the current federal government. "The traffic light has been rejected by the citizens," Söder stated on Sunday evening in Munich. The SPD, Greens, and FDP together lost almost a quarter of their voters. "The half-life of the traffic light is no more than another year." According to Söder, the union is in an advantageous position. He attributed the fall in CSU votes compared to 2019 to the fact that at that time, CSU politician Manfred Weber had ambitions for the post of commission president.
Regarding the outcome of the Free Voters, Söder claimed that their national and European dreams had collapsed and were now over. Instead, the Free Voters must focus more on the country and the municipalities.
CSU top candidate Weber deemed the performance of his party on Sunday as an "excellent accomplishment." Although the CSU is below the 40% mark, they surpassed their state election result of 37% from October 2023. "If we are now above that, that strengthens the CSU," Weber mentioned during a broadcast on Bavarian Radio. He declared a "bourgeois Europe."
There are mixed reactions within the CSU: While the absolute minimum goal of not falling back below the previous state election result of 37% was met, the party failed to surpass expectations of 41-43% in surveys.
The CSU nationwide received more than six percent, suggesting that they are not in danger of falling under the five percent threshold for the next federal election, given the current situation. However, their Bavarian coalition partner, the Free Voters, had worse outcomes than during the state election. It appears that they haven't drawn a large part of their supporters to the CSU. The Free Voters' leader, Hubert Aiwanger, was pleased that his party might manage to send a third representative to Brussels. "Granted, there's always some excitement up there, but I'm just happy we didn't lose," he said on Sunday evening on Bavarian Radio. "Many others have to lick their wounds. We can celebrate."
The Free Voters' goal of entering the Bundestag might have been a hindrance, given the lower-than-three-percent result calculated during the late evening. Aiwanger admitted that their outcome was not enough to make it into the Bundestag. "However, we have more than a year's time, and we will certainly run a different federal election campaign than this European election campaign."
The Green faction leader in the Bavarian state parliament, Katharina Schulze, described her party's performance as unsatisfactory. She urged a sober analysis. Meantime, AfD's Bavarian leader, Stephan Protschka, considered his party's outcome as gaining momentum. "We will send a strong delegation to Brussels, and their votes will also be beneficial in the parliament," he said, in response to the distance of European right-wing politicians towards the German AfD, like the French Marine Le Pen.
Around 10.4 million Bavarians voted, including 220,000 16- and 17-year-olds, as the voting age was lowered. There were about 822,000 individuals with an EU nationality eligible to vote in Bavaria. They could decide whether they wanted to vote in Bavaria or their home country. The latest flood events had no significant influence on the course of the European election, according to the state electoral commission.
