The German Social Democrats hold back the far right in the state vote, a victory for Scholz

POTSDAM, Germany (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats won elections in the eastern German state of Brandenburg on Sunday, gaining a narrow lead over a growing far-right party according to the vote count. The vote took place three weeks after the far right made gains in two other states in East Germany.

According to final results published by the state election administration on Sunday evening, the Social Democrats won 30.9% of the vote in the elections for the parliament of Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin. The far-right Alternative for Germany came in a close second with 29.2%.

A new left-wing movement, the Sahra Wagenknecht Allianceor BSW, came third with 13.5%, while the centre-right Christian Democrats gained 12.1%

First place for the Social Democrats brought a reprieve for the embattled Scholz, whose three-party governing coalition has fared poorly in elections so far this year.

The Social Democrats have governed Brandenburg continuously since German reunification in 1990, and a loss there would have been a major setback for Scholz, who has his constituency in the capital Potsdam.

Scholz has said he would like to run for the party as chancellor in next fall’s federal election, and Sunday’s vote was also being watched for what it could mean for his political future.

“It’s great that we won,” Scholz said from New York, where he was attending a meeting at the United Nations, according to German news agency dpa.

But the success of the Social Democrats in Brandenburg – after defeats elsewhere – was largely attributed not to Scholz, but to the efforts of the popular state governor Dietmar Woidke.

He distanced himself from Scholz during the campaign and took a gamble by promising to resign if the far right won.

On Sunday evening he could celebrate his political survival.

“It is an important victory for me, it is an important victory for my party, and it is an important victory for the state of Brandenburg,” Woidke said after the polls closed.

But he also said he felt the strong showing by the far-right party meant there was work to be done.

“They (the AFD) got about 30 percent, many voters voted for the AFD, and that is too much. So we need to reflect on these results and improve our policies,” Woidtke told The Associated Press.

The far-right party has gained support amid growing opposition to large-scale migration to Germany over the past decade and recent extremist attacks. The German economy, once a superpower, is weakening, contributing to a general sense of malaise.

Sunday’s vote followed a heated election campaign that focused on issues such as migration, internal security and peace. Both the far right and the new left movement want to put an end to arms deliveries to Kiev, while Ukraine tries to defend itself against Russia’s large-scale invasion.

The alternative for Germany won the most votes in the state of Thuringia and also did well in Saxony in the elections on September 1. The new party on the left, the BSW, also had a strong impact, while the parties in Scholz’s party unpopular national government achieved extremely weak results – as they did again in Brandenburg on Sunday.

The vote in Thuringia marked the first election victory for a far-right party in Germany since World War II. It raised concerns in Germany and abroad about growing support for the far right in Germany, a NATO member and the European Union’s largest country.

Towards the end of voting on Sunday afternoon, a group of anti-AfD demonstrators gathered at a restaurant where the far-right party’s supporters were meeting to hear the election results.

Their singing and the sound of whistles tried to disrupt the party. One carried a sign that read “AfD is so 1933,” referring to the year Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power.

Associated Press writer David Keyton contributed from Potsdam.