Germany’s governing three-party coalition under Olaf Scholz has already had a difficult time this year. But things just got significantly worse with recent state elections in Hesse and Bavaria, two of the country’s most prosperous states.
These elections really do matter. State governments control significant areas of policy and are represented in the upper house of Germany’s parliament (the Bundesrat), which has a veto on nearly 40% of legislation.
They are also a test of the political mood. It’s not uncommon for mid-term elections to go badly for incumbent governments, but these ones were especially noteworthy because of the sheer scale of the losses for Germany’s ruling parties.
