Following the completion of European voting. - East Germany's SPD chief calls for concentration on pensions and salaries
In Thuringia, the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), Georg Maier, is still hopeful about the upcoming state election, despite the party's poor showing in the European election. Maier told the German Press Agency in Erfurt that even though the SPD has been part of the governing coalition, they've experienced the least losses among the opposing parties, giving them confidence for the state election. He added that the low average pensions and wages in eastern Germany should be included in the conversation.
The SPD's national performance wasn't ideal - they dropped to 13.9%, putting them behind the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Fresh elections are set to take place in Thuringia on September 1st.
Maier considered some aspects of the results to be both encouraging and disappointing. "We won some runoff elections quite strongly - for example, in Kyffhäuser and Gotha," he shared. On the flip side, the party's candidates didn't fare well in the Unstrut-Hainich district and in Erfurt's state capital. Feeding off of national trends wasn't helpful. However, he acknowledged that local issues played a significant role in the SPD's unsuccessful runoff election in Erfurt.
At Erfurt's city hall, it's anticipated that there will be a change in leadership after 18 years. Andreas Bausewein, the current SPD mayor, was defeated in the runoff election by CDU candidate Andreas Horn. Recently, Bausewein received criticism for his conduct in disputes related to personnel at the Erfurt Theater. Furthermore, rumors spread about his potential switch to the Left Party led by Sahra Wagenknecht.
In Thuringia's European election, the SPD garnered 8.2% or a decrease of 2.8 percentage points compared to 5 years ago. The declines in votes for the Left and the Greens were bigger. The Left Party received a mere 5.7%, which is a massive drop of 8.1 percentage points from the 2019 election. The Greens, on the other hand, trailed at 4.2% with a decline of 4.4 percentage points compared to the 2019 European election.
