The outcome of the elections in the two eastern Länder of Thuringia and Brandenburg did not give any particular surprises. Thanks to a steadily declining turnout (just one in two voters went to the polls), Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), recorded two very positive results both in the Land of Erfurt , in which it has governed without interruption for the past twenty-five years (33,5%), and in the Land of Potsdam, in which it is traditionally less rooted (23%) and where it has also managed to override the extreme left (18,6%), down sharply compared to five years ago (-8,5%).
Less brilliant was the result of Mrs Merkel's allies, the SPD social democrats, who on the one hand confirm the traditional stronghold of Brandenburg (32%), but on the other hand fall to 12,5% in Thuringia, in which the share of Leone did just the far left, stable at 28%. Thanks to the exit from the regional parliaments of the liberals of the FDP, the Christian Democrats can no longer count on the traditional coalition partner and, just as happened last year at the federal level, they must compromise with their social democratic opponents.
Social democrats who, however, in both Länder would now have the possibility of inaugurating a new political season, allying themselves with Die Linke and the small ecological party of Grüne (5-6%). The situation in Thuringia is particularly delicate. Continuing the alliance with the Christian Democrats could condemn the SPD to sink further in the voter approval rating, while helping to elect the first far-left governor in a German state could alienate them from moderate voters, as well as than to cause an earthquake even in social democracy at the federal level. On the other hand, the picture in Brandenburg is less complicated, where the outgoing governor will be able to choose whether to continue the experience with Die Linke or the Christian Democrats themselves as new allies.
The negotiations that will begin in the next few days will have the last word. On the other hand, the AfD appears out of the picture, the Eurosceptic party which at the regional level has used the workhorses of the conservative right and has thus more than achieved the objective of exceeding the threshold (10,6% in Thuringia, 12,2% in Brandenburg), subtracting precious votes from the liberals of the FDP, now reduced to a flicker.
