Regional poll success boosts Germany's SPD

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz secured a confidence-boosting win in a regional election on the weekend that will allow him to claim popular support for his stance on the cost-of-living crisis and fuel shortages.

With Scholz's center-left Social Democrats, or SPD, on course to land around 32.5 percent of the popular vote after Sunday's regional election in the northern state of Lower Saxony his hand will be strengthened for difficult decisions to come.

The right-of-center Christian Democratic Union of Germany, or CDU, which former national leader Angela Merkel led for many years before standing down ahead of the last general election, was on course to win 27.5 percent, state broadcaster ZDF said on Monday after studying exit polls.

The Greens were poised to land 14.5 percent of the vote in the region that is home to 8 million people and strong industrial and agricultural sectors.

The pro-business FDP was expected to get about 5 percent, ZDF added.

The poll was Scholz's first electoral test since Germany vowed to stop using Russian natural gas following the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and since a fuel crisis flared because of shortages resulting from that conflict.

The Bloomberg news agency noted that Scholz will likely interpret the SPD's success as an endorsement of his stance, and of his 200-billion-euro ($194-billion) energy-price relief package.

However, the party's win was not all good news for Scholz, because the party's share of the vote slid from the 33.4 percent it landed in the previous election five years ago.

And the Associated Press news agency noted that Scholz's SPD had experienced weak support in pre-election polling, and that critics believed his success in Lower Saxony had more to do with Stephan Weil, the well-liked regional governor, than the way party has handled the cost-of-living and fuel crises.

Weil told the German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche ahead of the election voters clearly had plenty of concerns.

"Never have I seen so many question marks and worries on citizens' faces," he said, describing the campaigning as "the most difficult of my life".

The ARD public television network said on Monday exit polls and partial counts suggest the SPD will win around 33 percent of the vote, with the CDU landing about 28 percent. The broadcaster said the far-right Alternative for Germany party could get around 11 percent of votes.

The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle said Weil has already ruled out forming a coalition government with the CDU and wants to work instead with the Greens. Julia Hamburg, the Greens leader locally, has agreed such a coalition can and should happen. And the CDU's leader in the region, Bernd Althusmann, who had been economy minister in the state's previous coalition government, said he will now step down as party leader.

"We humbly accept this vote," DW quoted him as saying.