Voter Behavior in Eastern Germany – Is it a Litmus Test for Federal Elections in 2025?

Last month, voters went to the polls to elect their state parliaments in three eastern German states – Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia. The three parties that govern in Berlin – the so-called Ampelkoalition made up of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens, and Free Democrats (FDP) – came away weakened. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and new left-wing Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) gained traction in all three states. Based on the results, some have argued that the democratic center of Germany’s party system is eroding, while the political fringes are getting stronger. Even the main moderate opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), did not perform well.

Join the ACG for a virtual discussion as part of our Superwahljahr series with award-winning German journalist Sabine Schicketanz as part of our Superwahljahr 2024 series. Ms. Schicketanz has been reporting for the Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten for more than 20 years, and assumed the role of Editor-in-chief in 2014. We’ll talk about the election results and negotiations to form governments in each of the three states. We’ll also explore the degree to which these elections may (or may not) serve as a bellwether for the federal elections slated for September 2025.

Sabine Schicketanz cut her teeth as an intern at the Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten and researched her first stories there. She studied journalism at the German Journalism School in Munich, but returned to Potsdam. She worked as a local reporter and then headed the Potsdam edition – and learned that the core of journalism is at the local level. In 2014, Ms. Schicketanz became Editor-in-Chief of the Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten (which is part of the Tagesspiegel-Group) and in 2022 she was elected to the expanded editorial board of the Tagesspiegel.