CDU remains the strongest force in local elections in Lower Saxony, AfD triples its result

According to one projection, the CDU is once again the strongest force ahead of the SPD in the local elections in Lower Saxony. The projection by Infratest dimap on behalf of the NDR takes into account the results of the city council elections in the independent cities, the district council elections in the rural districts and the election of the regional assembly in the Hanover region.

According to the projection, the CDU's vote worsened from 31.7 to 27.7 percent compared to the 2021 local elections. The SPD also lost - from 30.0 to 24.5 percent.

According to the projections, the AfD will record strong gains: it would more than triple from 4.6 percent to 16.5 percent. After 15.9 percent, the Greens are now at 13.6 percent. The Left would improve from 2.8 to 5.9 percent, the FDP would fall from 6.5 to 3.6 percent.

According to the state election authority, the official preliminary district results will not be available until Monday morning. For the 2021 local elections they were announced at 8:20 a.m.

Higher turnout in bars until the afternoon

This time around 6.3 million people in Lower Saxony were called to vote in local council elections and 395 direct elections for top officials such as mayors and district administrators.

According to the state election authority, the local voter turnout was 50.67 percent by 4:30 p.m. That was around 6.7 percentage points more than five years ago. Postal votes, the proportion of which was above average in 2021 due to the corona pandemic, are not included in the comparative figures.

Which signal goes from Lower Saxony to Berlin?

The elections in Lower Saxony, located between the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and those in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, are also seen as a nationally important indicator of the mood in a western German state - not least with a view to the strengthening of the AfD, which is listed in Lower Saxony by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a right-wing extremist object of observation. The party is defending itself legally.

These are also the first nationwide elections since Olaf Lies took over as Prime Minister from Stephan Weil (both SPD) last year. The next state election in Lower Saxony will take place on September 26, 2027.