Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party lost a regional election for the second straight week, suffering a fresh blow amid wavering support for the German chancellor’s Ukraine policy.
The Christian Democrats, the main opposition party at the national level, were projected to take 35.3% of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday, maintaining their hold over Germany’s most-populous state. In its former stronghold, the SPD slumped to 27.4%, its worst-ever result there, according to projections from public broadcaster ARD.
The outcome could be damaging for Scholz. He tried to add his weight to the campaign by traveling to the state several times in an effort to rally voters in Germany’s industrial heartland, where the party has a traditional base among blue-collar workers.
