Final spurt before the local elections in Lower Saxony

In the final spurt before the local elections in Lower Saxony, the parties have ended their election campaign, some with prominent support from federal politicians. With many stands and rallies in municipalities, they once again campaigned for the citizens' votes on the last day before the election.

Around 6.3 million people from the North Sea to the Harz are called on Sunday to elect their mayors, district administrators and local councils. 26 parties are registered for local elections. Local voter groups and individual candidates are running alongside them. Which election proposals are on the ballot paper depends on the electoral area.

The election campaigners of the Lower Saxony SPD received support on Saturday in Celle and Hanover from the party chairman and Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil as well as from Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and the Bundestag faction leader Matthias Miersch.

During an appearance in Celle, the SPD party leader reacted with shock to an attack on his co-party leader Bärbel Bas from the ranks of the Union. "What's that supposed to mean? We are in damn difficult times. We have to stick together in a government,” said Klingbeil. He was referring to statements by the chairman of the influential middle class parliamentary group (PKM) in the Union faction, Christian von Stetten. “The minister is no longer sustainable,” the CDU MP told “Bild” about Federal Labor Minister Bas.

The other parties also campaigned one last time in many inner cities for votes from voters in Lower Saxony. In Osnabrück, the leader of the Green Party in the Bundestag, Katharina Dröge, appeared at a discussion event in the warehouse.

The CDU already received prominent support on Friday. North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst supported the election campaign at events in Lehrte near Hanover, in Wolfsburg and in Bad Laer in the Osnabrück district.

The outcome of the local elections is eagerly awaited. A year before the next state elections, the elections provide an insight into the mood in the state governed by the red-green coalition - not least against the background of the stricter austerity plans at the Volkswagen car company, in which Lower Saxony has a stake.

The counting of the ballot papers begins on Sunday when the polling stations close, i.e. at 6 p.m. It usually takes significantly longer for a provisional result to be known than in state or federal elections. The reason for this is the local election system with multiple votes and numerous types of voting. The preliminary state results are expected in the early hours of September 14th.