The SPD took almost 34% of the vote in the port city on Sunday, ahead of the Christian Democratic Union of chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz at about 20% and the Greens at about 18%, exit polls by broadcaster ARD showed. While Merz’s Christian Democratic Union posted the biggest gains and more than doubled its support, the numbers would allow Hamburg’s governing coalition of SPD and Greens to retain power with a slimmed majority in the city legislature.
Scholz’s center-left SPD has ruled Hamburg for most of the 80 years since the end of World War II, including under Scholz between 2011 and 2018. The Hamburg result might support the SPD’s planned leadership change on federal level in Berlin and could strengthen its hand in upcoming coalition talks with Merz’s Conservative bloc.
Hamburg is economically important as Germany’s largest port — the third-biggest in Europe — and industry including an Airbus SE factory.
Exit polls put the far-right Alternative for Germany — the second-biggest party nationwide after the Feb. 23 federal election — at 8.5% in Hamburg and the Left party at 11.5%.
Dennis Thering, the CDU’s mayoral candidate, said the Social Democrats should consider switching partners in Hamburg as they contemplate a potential role in a Merz-led coalition at the national level.
“We’re seeing that we’re getting a grand coalition on federal level,” Thering said on ARD. “That would also work well in Hamburg.”
Merz wants to form a government led by his conservative bloc by mid-April. Unlike in the US or UK, parties in Europe’s biggest economy usually need to team up with another party to form a coalition that has a parliamentary majority. Those talks can drag on until party negotiators agree on a joint policy platform.
Key officials from the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the SPD met for a first round of exploratory talks in Berlin on Friday and are expected to continue conversations this week.