German state election offers 1st test since Scholz took over
ABC News
The western German state of Saarland is holding a state election that offers the country’s first test at the ballot box since Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s national government took office in December
BERLIN -- The western German state of Saarland is holding an election Sunday that offers the country's first test at the ballot box since Chancellor Olaf Scholz's national government took office in December.
Polls before the election for the state legislature point to a solid lead for Scholz's center-left Social Democrats in a region led since 1999 by the center-right Christian Democratic Union party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
That doesn't necessarily have much to do with what has been a turbulent first 100 days for Scholz's three-party coalition, during which Russia's war in Ukraine prompted the chancellor to upend German defense policy and Germany to welcome large numbers of refugees. Germany also is grappling with a persistent wave of coronavirus infections, recently seeing over 200,000 cases per day.
All the same, it's the first of three state elections within two months — all in regions currently led by CDU governors — that will help set the political tone for the coming year. The most important vote, on May 15, is in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.
