A bellwether election in Germany’s most populous state has shown a further eroding of support for populist parties on the far ends of the political spectrum, thrown up questions over the pulling power of the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and entrenched the growing authority of the Greens.
The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of the incumbent state premier, Hendrik Wüst, emerged as the strongest party on the night in North Rhine-Westphalia, with 35.7% of the vote, while the Social Democratic party (SPD) came second with its worst postwar result in the former stronghold state in the industrial west.
