Olaf Scholz has won a hollow victory in Brandenburg’s state elections

In what will surely come as a relief to the German chancellor Olaf Scholz, his SPD party has won this weekend’s state elections in Brandenburg. Securing themselves another term in power, the party squeaked past the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) with 30.7 per cent of the vote. The AfD missed out by just 1.2 percentage points – less than 26,000 votes – with 29.5 per cent of the vote, denying them the chance of a second victory at state level in three weeks.

While it will in all probability take officials a day or two to verify the final result, it appears Sunday’s vote has secured the SPD 32 seats in Brandenburg’s parliament – just two more seats than AfD. This places Scholz’s party 13 seats short of an overall majority, meaning they will be forced to form a coalition with one or more of the other parties in order to govern in the state.