"The parties that campaigned for nuclear power did not win"

The results of the state elections in Lower Saxony were very different from what some parties would have liked: the CDU achieved one of its worst election results to date, and the FDP completely missed entering the state parliament. Meanwhile, the AfD celebrated twice the number of votes compared to the last election.

The SPD and the Greens also did well in comparison - even though satisfaction with the traffic light government seems to be rather low. How could this happen? And what conclusions should traffic lights and the opposition draw from this?

Together with the party leader of the Greens, Ricarda Lang, and the leader of the SPD, Lars Klingbeil, Anne Will evaluated the Lower Saxony election in her ARD talk on Sunday evening. The CDU was represented by the deputy parliamentary group leader and former Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn. WELT author Robin Alexander and political scientist Julia Reuschenbach commented on the events.

The Social Democrats got 33.4 percent – ​​3.5 points less than in the previous election in 2017, but still enough to be able to freely choose the coalition partner. Nationwide surveys actually suggested something else: 68 percent of the citizens were less or not at all satisfied with the work of the federal government, read the moderator Will, in Lower Saxony the number was 54 percent.

One should not give federal politics too much space, said SPD leader Klingbeil: It was an election with state political issues. For him it was a "clear vote" that he was happy about, but it was important: "Olaf Scholz was not up for election in Lower Saxony, but Stephan Weil."

This had the "incumbent bonus" held, said political scientist Reuschenbach; he had therefore taken advantage of his popularity as acting prime minister. Jens Spahn also emphasized Weil's success: "Stephan Weil actually managed to turn this into an election for the prime minister in this federal political mood," he said.

The federal government should therefore not rest too much on it. Especially with a view to the 11.3 percent of the AfD, one should not lose sight of the dissatisfaction of many citizens, said Spahn: "You can feel that this great promise of prosperity across the board is crumbling. A lot of people feel that, there is a lot of uncertainty, and at the same time they don't yet see that the answer is leadership - and that must concern us all."

Party leader Lang denied that the Greens had no leadership: "We are the only democratic party that has grown," she said. Although Economics Minister Robert Habeck received just 42 percent approval in the polls after the failed gas levy and the discussion about nuclear power plants, the election results of the Greens in Lower Saxony show that he and the party are up to the government mandate: "If someone is in a storm, responsibility takes over, then you get wet sometimes,” said Lang. "I have to say that I would much rather have an economics minister who takes responsibility, even when things get bumpy, than standing there and doing nothing, only to be able to say in the end: 'It wasn't me.'"

With the FDP’s bitter election result of 4.9 percent, conclusions have to be drawn about their federal politics, said WELT author Alexander. Above all, he criticized the FDP's election campaign, in which Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had warned in advance of a left-wing government in Lower Saxony - i.e. a government made up of the two parties with which the FDP governs at federal level. "The SPD sat in this pit for years," said Alexander. "The voters didn't understand that. You are either the government or the opposition for the voters – but the FDP is digging the same pit.”

After the first projections of the election, party leader Lindner said the party had to “reconsider its role in the coalition”. While the SPD and the Greens had clearly spoken out against the continued operation of the nuclear power plants, the FDP had campaigned in favor of this. Lang took advantage of this: It was clear that the election set a sign against switching on individual nuclear power plants again: "You have to realize that the two parties that campaigned very strongly for the return to nuclear power, the CDU and the FDP did not win," said Lang.

That's why you have to focus on the expansion of renewable energies now, as Lars Klingbeil also said: "There will be no return to nuclear power, there won't be one under the SPD either - we have to make progress with renewable energies and that's where it has to Government now quickly put a check on it.”

Spahn and Klingbeil exchanged heated blows when Spahn then turned the discussion to the traffic light coalition's slow handling of the energy crisis: "I'm a little worried now because I've heard from you two in the government for the third or fourth time: 'We have to decide soon,'" he said. "The main problem, and I also claim the problem that makes this anger so strong, is that it hasn't been decided for months."

The election result of the FDP and CDU does not say much about the approval of nuclear power, the topic was not present enough for that, said Spahn: "I have not met anyone who questions that in the middle of the biggest energy crisis, with record electricity prices, you don't should keep safe nuclear power plants running. That has a broad majority in Germany.”

It is precisely the disagreement within the traffic light coalition that leads to a reaction speed that is too slow, said Spahn: "In one of the biggest economic crises, the economics and finance ministers argue every day - nuclear energy, debt brake, taxes down - every day there is an argument," he said. "Mr. Klingbeil says we should support the government, so I wonder which part of the government? They don't agree at any point."

"Dear Mr. Spahn, it is dishonest to say that nothing has been decided," replied Klingbeil. "I would like the Union to draw conclusions from this election result." The Union had not made any proposal to deal with the energy crisis, he said: Friedrich Merz had at most proposed shutting down the Nord Stream pipeline. "If we had gone down this path, we would no longer only be talking about 200 billion."

In fact, Klingbeil admitted: "I also think that many decisions have to come more quickly, but they still have to be made thoroughly - we decide over 200 billion here," he said.

Spahn had now arrived in his opposition role. Almost mockingly, he questioned how the traffic light was handled with the 200 billion euros: "I've never seen that there is a press conference where the finance and economics ministers and the Federal Chancellor sit down and say: 'There are now 200 billion euros - for what exactly We don't know yet, but it's definitely 200 billion'." One should have thought about what these 200 billion will be used for beforehand and only then set the sum, he said, "So that's how I have it learned.”

Last but not least, the defeat of the CDU in the state elections in Lower Saxony had to be discussed. On the one hand, Alexander attributed the result to the ideologically unclean party congress: "Programmatically, one turned to the left, rhetorically one turned to the right," he said, referring to the women's quota in the CDU decided at the party congress, which did not coincide with the "pithy “ Speeches by top politicians fit together. "I believe that the CDU has not yet found its own point."

Klingbeil and Lang also accused the CDU party leader Merz, who recently accused Ukrainian refugees of “social tourism” to Germany, of the rhetorical shift to the right. Although he had apologized "if my choice of words was felt to be offensive", a little later he made further statements about the supposed pull factor in Germany, which there is through social funds for asylum seekers.

Lang criticized this as populism and accused the CDU of having lost voters to the AfD: "You said earlier, Mr. Spahn, that you are worried when you see the result of the AfD," she said. "This result is also strengthened by spreading right-wing narratives and Russian propaganda, and the Union is responsible for this, Friedrich Merz also bears responsibility for this."

Political scientist Reuschenbach also saw Merz as responsible here: "It must be possible to do opposition work critically," she said. "But the question is, with which language." However, one would make it "too easy to say that the AfD's gain is the Union's fault," she added.

Spahn repeated again that the term "social tourism" was wrong, but expressed his support for Merz: "That's our program, Ms. Will," he said. "We want immigration into the labor market, we don't want immigration into the social security system."

The CDU must "review the election in a self-critical manner," said Spahn. It must serve as food for thought that voters, after 16 years in government and one year in opposition, do not put their trust in the Union.