The German Greens have beaten Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative CDU in the state election of Baden-Württemberg, seen as a test for the German leader, according to exit polls.
Over 31% of voters opted for the Greens led by Cem Özdemir, a poll for broadcaster ZDF said, compared with 30.5% for the CDU. ARD, another public broadcaster, put the Greens ahead with 32% to 29%.
Özdemir served as the German Federal Minister for food and agriculture from 2021 to 2025 in the coalition government led by Olaf Scholz.
Both polls showed the far-right Alternative for Germany almost doubling its result compared to 2021 elections, taking third-place with about 18% of the vote.
For its part, the socialist SPD appears to have halved its support, dropping from 11% to just 5.5%, according to both polls.
With less than 5% of the vote, the liberal FDP and the radical left Die Linke will, according to both polls, likely fail to secure seats in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament.
Germany’s Turkish-heritage political star
Ozdemir, 60, is now set to become the country’s first state premier of Turkish heritage. He calls himself a “Swabian Anatolian”, a nod to his Turkish parents and the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg where he was born and raised.
He became one of the first federal MPs with Turkish roots in 1994 and was able to draw on his considerable name recognition in the Baden-Württemberg campaign, especially when compared to the CDU’s lead candidate, the relatively unknown 37-year-old Manuel Hagel.
Ozdemir was born the son of a textile worker and a seamstress in the small town of Bad Urach, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Stuttgart, in December 1965. His parents were part of the wave of “Gastarbeiter” or “guest workers” who provided much of the manpower for Germany’s post-war economic miracle, many of them from Turkey.
He took German nationality in 1983.
As well as serving as a federal MP, Ozdemir sat in the European Parliament between 2004 and 2009. In the televised debates in the run-up to the Baden-Württemberg poll he made much of his foreign policy expertise and argued that his experience and contacts could help the region, which is home to car industry stalwarts such as Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.
Source:
www.euractiv.com