North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister President Hendrik Wüst of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has expressed satisfaction with his party’s performance in the recent local elections. Addressing the WDR broadcaster on Sunday evening, Wüst highlighted that the CDU achieved a result eight percentage points higher than the national average. He described this as a “remarkable and impressive result” particularly given the current national political trends.
Preliminary projections from Infratest Dimap, conducted for WDR, indicate that the CDU secured 34.2 percent of the vote statewide. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) registered at 22.6 percent, while the Green Party garnered 11.7 percent. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) achieved 3.4 percent, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) 16.4 percent, The Left (Die Linke) 5.4 percent and other parties collectively received 6.3 percent.
Acknowledging the vote share of the AfD, Minister President Wüst emphasized the need for serious consideration and proactive engagement with the underlying concerns driving support for the party. He stressed the importance of addressing issues such as migration and precarious housing conditions, citing challenges observed in the Ruhr area as examples requiring focused attention.