(Adnkronos) – On Sunday, the southwestern German state of Rhineland-Palatinate will elect its new regional parliament, the Landtag. While the CDU had recently managed to consolidate a clear lead over the SPD, the party led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz then saw its lead progressively shrink, similar to what happened before the March 8 vote in Baden-Wuerttemberg between the CDU and the Greens.
After more than three decades in opposition, the CDU aims to once again become the main force in the state parliament of Mainz and thus replace the current social democratic prime minister Alexander Schweitzer. Currently, a ‘traffic light coalition’ formed by the SPD, Greens, and liberals of the FDP is in government. According to polls, the most probable outcome after the vote would be a local ‘Grand Coalition’ made up of the CDU and SPD.
Three days before the vote, the ZDF’s “Politbarometer Extra” poll shows a neck-and-neck race between the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD). The former, led by prime ministerial candidate Gordon Schnieder, stand at 29% of preferences, while the SPD, led by outgoing regional premier Alexander Schweitzer, stands at 27%. Both parties gained one percentage point compared to the previous week. In third place, with 19% of the votes, is Alternative for Germany (AfD), followed by the Greens with 9%. The Free Voters (Freie Waehler), represented in the regional parliament since the beginning of this legislature, would obtain 4.5% (down 0.5 points), below the minimum threshold for entering the assembly. Die Linke (The Left) remains stable at 5% and it remains to be seen whether it will succeed in being represented for the first time in the regional parliament.
The Liberals of the FDP – currently in government – risk falling, as in this poll, only into the “Other” category, which would collectively gather 6.5% of the votes according to forecasts. When asked about their preferred prime ministerial candidate, 40% of the sample indicated Schweitzer and 25% the CDU’s leading candidate, Schnieder.
Among the dominant themes, education played a particularly important role for voters in Rhineland-Palatinate. This emerges from a representative survey conducted by the Infratest dimap research institute on behalf of SWR (southwestern German broadcaster) cited by Welt. When asked about the most important problems, 29% of respondents in January indicated education, schools, and vocational training. 22% cited immigration, 18% transport policies, and 13% the economy. 10% considered healthcare, medical care, and nursing care important. Less than 10% mentioned housing, social inequalities, and the public finance situation.
