German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's beleaguered coalition was counting the cost Monday of heavy losses at two state elections halfway into its term, that also saw the far right make strong gains.
All three parties in the coalition -- Scholz's centre-left SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP -- saw support fall Sunday in southern Bavaria, the country's biggest state, and western Hesse, according to vote projections.
Two years after coming to power, the polls were a kind of"interim report card" for Scholz's coalition, news weekly Der Spiegel said in a commentary. "Hesse and Bavaria are a sign that the AfD can build on solid ground in the West as it has in the East," the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine said.The elections came after a torrid two years for Scholz's government, which has had to contend with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and an ensuing energy crisis that plunged Germany into recession.
But the party won just 15 percent of the vote, almost five percentage points below its last result in 2018, according to the latest projections late Sunday from ARD. The AfD looked to have gained about five percentage points in both Bavaria and Hesse, building on recent local poll wins, although it is unlikely to enter government in either state.
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