Social Democrats narrowly beat out far-right in Brandenburg elections

Sunday's vote followed a heated election campaign centred on the issues of migration, internal security and peace.

Transcript

00:00German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrat Party narrowly won an election in the eastern

00:06German state of Brandenburg.

00:08Three weeks after the far-right Alternative for Germany made gains in two other East German

00:12states, the SPD came out on top.

00:15Results published by the state electoral administration say the SPD won 30.9%, while the AfD came

00:21second with 29.2%.

00:24It is an important victory for me, it's an important victory for my party and it's an

00:30important victory for the state of Brandenburg because it's one of the biggest goals for

00:40us in the beginning of our campaign was to provide stability.

00:49The SPD's victory brought a reprieve to Scholz, whose three-party governing coalition has

00:53fared poorly in elections so far this year.

00:57Scholz has expressed his desire to be his party's candidate for Chancellor in next year's

01:01federal election, with this weekend's vote also being watched for what it might signal

01:06about his political future.