Scholz's SPD on track to win Bremen state election - exit poll

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats were on track to come first in an election in the city of Bremen, the country's smallest state, on Sunday, according to an exit poll by state broadcaster ZDF.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats were on track to come first in an election in the city of Bremen, the country's smallest state, on Sunday, according to an exit poll by state broadcaster ZDF. The SPD looked set to take 30% of the vote, up 5.1 percentage points from the last election in 2019, while the conservatives were on 24.5%, down 2.2 percentage points, according to the poll.

However, the SPD's national coalition partners were on track to suffer losses: the environmentalist Greens were on 12%, down 5.4 percentage points, and the pro-business Free Democrats on 5%, down 0.9 percentage points. The FDP in particular will be keeping a close eye on the election results as they trickle in on Sunday evening, given they failed last year to pass the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament in three state votes.