Greens up, Merkel's party down in Germany's regional Hamburg elections

Election posters of Hamburg candidates for mayor, Peter Tschentscher (left) with the SPD and Katharina Fegebank (right) with the Greens (Credit: Reuters/ Fabian Bimmer)

Voters in the city of Hamburg turned their backs on Angela Merkel's conservatives in a regional election, Sunday, with the far-right AfD also hit and only just passing the 5 percent threshold to enter the regional parliament.

The early results show the biggest winners were the Green Party, who doubled their backing from 2015, to 24 percent, as climate change concerns continue to dominate German politics.

Hamburg residents went to the polls in an election against a backdrop of chaotic federal politics and growing concerns over climate change.

The Green Party's success means they finish second to the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), who were down 6 percent on 2015 but still on 39 percent.

"We have to hold our ground against the federal trend," Peter Tschentscher, Hamburg's incumbent mayor and SPD member told AFP ahead of the vote.

By contrast, Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lost more than four points to 11.5 percent - one of their worst tallies in any German region. The AfD result of 5.3 percent is down from just over 6 percent last time around.

The Green Party has won gains in different parts of Germany because of increasing concerns about climate change. In Hamburg, the Green Party has pledged to make the city carbon neutral by 2035, 15 years before Germany's national target. Katharina Fegebank, the Greens' local leader has also joined students and Greta Thunberg in a Friday protest.

The SPD in Hamburg has followed this trend by proposing green policies, such as plans to convert the city's coal power plant to natural gas and making the city mostly car-free.

Greta Thunberg at a Fridays for future protest in Hamburg. (Credit: Reuters/ Fabian Bimmer)

The CDU's poor showing comes after another regional vote in Thuringia on 10 February, the aftermath of which saw Merkel's chosen successor Kramp-Karrenbauer stepping down as CDU leader.

That decision was the result of regional members of the party working with the far-right AfD to vote in a member of the business-friendly Free Democrats as state premier.

On a national level the SPD has also not recovered from the 2017 elections when it received a historic low result. Since then, the party has moved through multiple leaders, until it landed on the duo Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken. Both of who have been absent from campaign events in Hamburg.

Source(s): AFP ,AP ,Reuters