An election campaign poster in Sonneberg, Germany, June 2023
An election campaign poster in Sonneberg, Germany, June 2023
Max Schwarz / Reuters

Regional elections in Germany are rarely newsworthy outside of the country, but this week’s elections in Bavaria and Hesse—coming at the halfway point for the tenure of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government—were different. Both states are ruled by conservative minister presidents favored for reelection, while the progressive “traffic light” coalition that governs at the national level in Berlin—a three-party grouping composed of the Social Democrats (“red”), the Greens, and the liberal Free Democratic Party (“yellow”)— is currently deeply unpopular, earning approval ratings of less than 40 percent in recent national polls. So, much like U.S. midterm

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  • LIANA FIX is a Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations.
  • CONSTANZE STELZENMÜLLER is Director of the Center on the United States and Europe and Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and Trans-Atlantic Relations at the Brookings Institution.
  • More By Liana Fix
  • More By Constanze Stelzenmüller
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