Heavy defeat looms for Scholz’s SPD in German regional vote

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) suffered a crushing defeat in a key German regional election on Sunday, exit polls showed, in a damning verdict on his perceived weak response to the war in Ukraine.

The likely loss for the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia would be a big blow for Scholz, who has held the reins of Europe’s biggest economy for less than six months.

Preliminary results from the vote in Germany’s most populous state showed the SPD on around 28 percent, with the conservative CDU far out in front on around 35 percent.