SPD hopes to cushion snap election defeat with victory in upcoming Hamburg state vote

Just one week after their defeat at Germany’s snap election, the Social Democrats (SPD) of outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz are hoping to land an election victory, when the country’s second largest city Hamburg heads to the ballots for state elections on Sunday (2 March).

Top candidates from the Christian Democrat Union (CDU) and Green Party are set to travel to the city-state of Hamburg in a bid to lure last-minute voters to their respective parties, Hamburger Morgenpost reported. The CDU, which won the federal elections on 23 February, will see chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz make an appearance, while the Green Party is sending foreign minister Annalena Baerbock.

The SPD under current Hamburg mayor Peter Tschentscher comfortably leads the polls in the independent city state with 32 percent, according to newspaper Tagesspiegel. They are trailed by the conservative CDU, which polls at 17 percent in Hamburg, and by the Greens at 16 percent. Tschentscher has governed Hamburg with an SPD-Green Party coalition government since 2018, when he took over the job from former mayor Olaf Scholz. The Left Party is polling at 13 percent and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at 11 percent, while the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the nationalist-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) would fail to reach the city state’s five-percent threshold to enter parliament, according to the poll.

Mayor Tschentscher has said he would like to continue the coalition with the Green Party, which would be possible if current polling figures are confirmed at the ballot, newspaper Die Zeit reported. At the previous vote in Hamburg, the SPD had gained 39 percent, the Greens 24 percent and the CDU 11 percent. All three parties have presented ideas to make Hamburg a frontrunner in green technologies, with a focus on the wealthy northern city’s large harbour as a hub for climate-friendly logistics, the offshore wind industry and for Germany’s green hydrogen plans, newspaper Merkur said. Hamburg’s Green Party leader, Katharina Fegebank, said the SPD-Green coalition had proven “stable” in the city.

However, the two parties differ on their answer to a possible referendum on Hamburg’s climate targets. The city currently aims to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2045, a deadline that mayor Tschentscher has defended, while the Green Party has sided with climate activist groups who aim to pull the target forward to 2040. The referendum, which was initiated by activist group Fridays for Future, could be held this autumn, reported Radio Hamburg.