German SPD on track for another win as Saarland state heads to polls

FILE PHOTO: Election posters of Anke Rehlinger (L), top candidate for the Social Democratic party SPD and Tobias Hans, top candidate for the Christian Democratic Union party CDU for the upcoming March 27, 2022, election in Germany's smallest federal state of the Saarland are pictured in Voelklingen near the Saarland’s capital Saarbruecken, Germany March 21, 2022. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Germans head to the polls in the small western state of Saarland on Sunday in the first of four regional votes this year which could enable Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz to consolidate his grip on power.

The first regional vote since the federal election last September which the Social Democrats (SPD) unexpectedly won - beating the conservatives for the first time in 16 years - looks set to provide the party another boost.