German State Election Maps

Yesterday two state elections were held in Germany. The two states, Saxony and Brandenburg, are both in the part of Germany which was once East Germany. In both of yesterday's state elections the far-right AfD made strong gains but failed to become the most popular party in either state. The AfD were the second largest party in both states but it is likely that they will be frozen out by the other political parties from playing any role is either state's coalition government.

The Berliner Morgenpost has created two interactive election maps; one for Saxony and the other for Brandenburg. On both maps electoral districts are colored to show the party which won the most votes. You can also click on individual political parties on both maps to see how they performed across each state. In Saxony Angela Merkel's CPD party won the most votes, but the party saw their vote drop by 7.3% compared to the last state election in 2014. In Brandenburg the left-wing SPD won the most votes overall, but saw their vote drop by 5.7% since 2014. In both states the far-right AfD saw a significant two digit increase in votes since the 2014 elections.


Zeit has also mapped out the results of both state elections. Zeit's Saxony map, like the Berliner Morgenpost map, shows that the AfD performed particularly strongly in the east of the state. All constituencies in the state were won by either the CDU or the AfD. The CDU performed particularly well in the most westerly constituencies. The Green party picked up their largest share of the vote in cities and towns and performed less well in more rural constituencies.

Zeit's Brandenburg election map reveals a similar east-west split. In Brandenburg, as in Saxony, the AfD performed much better in the eastern constituencies. In this state however it was the SPD who picked up the most votes in most western constituencies.


Waz has also created interactive maps of the Saxony and Brandenburg state elections. Alongside the traditional choropleth maps Waz has published some interesting swing maps. These maps visualize perfectly the increase in the vote share of the AfD and the large falls in the vote share for both the CDU and SPD, since the 2014 elections.

Waz has also created interesting tables which show how the different political parties could combine to create a working coalition in each state. It is likely however that neither the SPD or CDU will want to work with the AfD.