SPD set to win as AfD poised for drop out after Hamburg elections

The far-right Alternative for Germany party has lost support in the wake of a deadly attack on people of foreign descent in Hanau.

The center-left SPD are set to maintain their leadership in the city-state, according to early results. Support plummeted for the far-right AfD, with the party poised to drop out of its first state parliament in Germany.

The center-left Social Democrats (SPD) are on track for a decisive win in Hamburg, with early results indicating that the party will maintain its leadership in the northern German city-state.

Early results released just after polls closed on Sunday evening showed the SPD winning 37.5% of the vote. Support for the Greens surged, putting them in second place with 25.5%, followed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) falling to 11.5%.
The Left party is on track to secure 9% of the vote, followed by the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) with 5%.

In the largest upset of the night, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could potentially drop out of its first state parliament, with early results showing the party securing 4.7% of the vote — falling just shy of the 5% hurdle to enter parliament.

This follows trends in polls where according to research done by the Kantar Institute and published in Bild am Sonntag on Sunday, 60% of respondents agreed that the AfD is partly responsible for instances of right-wing extremist violence such as took place in the city near Frankfurt last week.
Late Wednesday evening, a 43-year-old German man in Hanau killed nine people of foreign descent, seemingly motivated by a xenophobic worldview. He was later found dead in his apartment, along with his mother.

DW