SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil can prepare early on Sunday to be happy about the outcome of the election in Saarland.

Already during the afternoon, even in distant Berlin, it can be seen that the Social Democrats in the Saar will win the election by a large margin.

Half an hour after the polls closed, Klingbeil speaks of a “sensational victory”.

The SPD leader says it is a "successful first mood test" after the SPD's victory in the federal elections last autumn.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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The “comeback” of his party in the federal government was therefore “not unique”.

Although Klingbeil from the Willy Brandt House points out that all decisions to be made in the Saar will also be made in Saarland, he does not forget to mention that top candidate and election winner Anke Rehlinger, in a switching conference with the presidency, on the close cooperation with the federal leadership.

People in Berlin clearly want to take something away from the success in Saarland.

The new SPD is one that seeks and finds success together, says SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert.

Another woman from the SPD at the head of a country

Former Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Saarland Social Democrat, said immediately after the polling stations closed: "We are not dissatisfied with an election result that is phenomenal." Maas explains the performance with the "good work" that his party is doing in the state government as a junior partner have done.

"We had the better package on offer." He also derives hope for the state elections in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia in May, where the SPD is not currently in government.

If such a good result as on Sunday is possible from the role of "junior partner", it can also be done from the opposition.

Maas says it was a "very, very country-specific" election.

As far as the issues beyond the regional are concerned, he says that the corona pandemic played a role in the election campaign.

At least the voters were apparently of the opinion that what the federal government was doing - for example in the Ukraine crisis - could be supported, that is to say: it did no harm.

For Chancellor Olaf Scholz, it means "of course tailwind" that the first election during his chancellorship ended so well for the SPD, says Maas.

In terms of federal politics, the election Sunday is also a success for the Social Democrats because a woman will become the head of the state.

In addition to the three heads of government with SPD party membership in Rhineland-Palatinate, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, there is one more.

The CDU and CSU do not have a single prime minister.

The SPD leadership did not let anything go wrong in supporting their deputy federal chairmen in the fight for the state chancellery in Saarbrücken.

On Saturday, the SPD federal chairwoman Saskia Esken was on the road for Rehlinger in the election campaign.

Just under a week before the election, Klingbeil toured Saarland and discussed European cohesion in the country bordering France and Luxembourg.

In general, the SPD leadership is not losing sight of the four state elections this year.

Although elections will not take place until May 8th in Schleswig-Holstein, a week later in North Rhine-Westphalia and in the fall in Lower Saxony, prominent social democratic figures are already swarming out.

Labor Minister Hubertus Heil was on the Saturday before the Saarland elections in the north, in the Pinneberg district, and announced campaign appearances in North Rhine-Westphalia for Monday and Tuesday.

Even the Federal Chancellor got involved in Saarland.

Between phone calls with Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyj and Emmanuel Macron, between trips and speeches in the Bundestag on the war, he supported Rehlinger.