BERLIN (AA) - Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) scored a landslide victory on Sunday in regional polls in the small western state of Saarland.
Led by Anke Rehlinger, the most popular politician in the region, the SPD has won 43.4% of the vote, a 13.8% jump compared to 2017, according to projections by public broadcaster ARD.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a huge loss but still managed to win 28.1%, down from 40.7% five years ago.
The environmentalist, pro-immigration Green Party came in third with 5.2%.
Projections showed the Islamophobic, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) winning 5.7% of the vote, slightly less than its showing in the previous elections.
The socialist Left Party (Die Linke) got its worst result in nearly two decades, with just 2.6% of the vote, below the 5% threshold needed to enter the state parliament.