After more than two decades under the leadership of the CDU, there is a change of power in Saarland.

In the state elections on Sunday, the SPD was by far the strongest party.

According to the preliminary official final result, the Social Democrats came to 43.5 percent, their best election result since the late 1990s.

The previous Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Anke Rehlinger, can thus replace the incumbent Prime Minister Tobias Hans and become the first Social Democratic Prime Minister in the Saar.

"The Saarland voted red, the Saar SPD won the election," said Rehlinger.

"After 23 years we are again the strongest force as a social democracy in the Saar." That was the result of hard work, the SPD had won back the trust of the citizens.

“Anke Rehlinger is the first in five years who has managed to shoot a federal state.

That Gordian knot is now tied.

You can win state elections as a challenger," said SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert.

The SPD federal chairman Lars Klingbeil spoke of a "sensational victory" in Saarland and emphasized: "The comeback of the SPD, which we experienced in the federal election, was not unique in the federal election, but we continue to win elections afterwards." Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated the election winner.

Disappointment for the CDU

CDU top candidate Tobias Hans was unable to use his official bonus.

His party only gets 28.5 percent - that's 12.2 percentage points less than in 2017 and the worst result in the Saar for more than six decades.

“All surveys have been confirmed.

It's a bitter defeat for me," said Hans, announcing "personal consequences."

What that means exactly, he wants to discuss with his party tomorrow.

"It's a bitter evening, a painful result, we're not satisfied with it," said CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja.

He thanked Tobias Hans and his team, who had conducted an impressive election campaign.

"For us, we win together and we lose together," Czaja continued.

After three legislative periods, the left is no longer represented in the Saarland state parliament, it fell by 10.2 percentage points to 2.6 percent.

"It's a very, very bitter evening tonight," said Left party leader Janine Wissler.

The defeat certainly had something to do with the fact that the party was divided in Saarland.

Regarding Lafontaine's exit from the party and his call not to vote for the left, Wissler said: "Of course that was a hard blow for the left in Saarland."

The AfD comes to 5.7 percent.

Christian Wirth, state chairman of the AfD in Saarland, said on ZDF: "Today was not a good day for small parties.

This is also due to the Ukraine crisis.

People are more likely to move to the big parties. ”But he could live with the result of the AfD.

The FDP is at 4.8, so they also missed entering the state parliament like the Greens (4.9 percent).

FDP party leader Christian Linder said on ZDF that there was an argument between Hans and Rehlinger at the ballot box.

On Sunday, more than 750,000 Saarland voters were called upon to cast their votes.

Voter turnout declined somewhat.

The ZDF gave it at 63 percent, in 2017 it was 69.7 percent.

With almost one million inhabitants, Saarland is the smallest of the federal states.

Nevertheless, the election was considered a mood test for federal politics.

This year, state elections will be held in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia in May and in Lower Saxony in October.