Voting opened at 8 a.m. local time in Baden-Württemberg on Sunday, where roughly 7.7 million people were eligible to vote in the first of five regional elections scheduled across Germany this year. Polling indicated a close contest between Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Greens, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was widely expected to significantly increase its share compared with 2021.
Baden-Württemberg, an industrial and technological hub in the southwest that hosts Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Bosch, has been governed by the Greens for 15 years under Winfried Kretschmann. The outgoing premier, who turned 78 in May and is stepping down, cast his ballot in Sigmaringen on Sunday. Kretschmann’s moderate style helped the Greens hold the state since 2011, ending decades of CDU rule.
The main contest pits Green candidate Cem Özdemir, a former federal agriculture minister, against Manuel Hagel of the CDU. Hagel led earlier in the campaign but lost ground after a video surfaced of controversial remarks he made about schoolgirls in 2018. Recent surveys put the CDU and the Greens level at roughly 28% each, leaving the outcome uncertain.
For Chancellor Merz, a CDU victory in Baden-Württemberg would strengthen his reform agenda and signal momentum for the party nationally, potentially restoring the state to its pre-2011 voting pattern. A Green win would demonstrate the party’s enduring regional appeal despite its weak performance in last year’s national elections.
The AfD was expected to roughly double its previous 9% result from the 2021 state vote, a prospect that could complicate post-election coalition arithmetic and reshape regional politics. Turnout and shifts among smaller parties will affect which alliances are possible; officials cautioned that a clear statewide picture might not emerge until later in the week as votes are tallied.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Bavaria held municipal elections: about 10 million residents were eligible to vote for local councils, district administrators and mayors across some 39,300 seats. The Munich mayoral race — with incumbent Dieter Reiter of the Social Democrats seeking a third term amid recent controversies — drew particular attention, and results were being read as an informal test of Markus Söder’s Christian Social Union (CSU) popularity across the state.
March 8 also featured planned rallies for International Women’s Day. In Berlin, a march organized by the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) and other groups was due to set off from Kreuzberg and proceed to City Hall, with events and discussions on women’s rights and equality scheduled in Hamburg, Munich, Leipzig, Hanover, Kiel and other cities.
On a lighter cultural note, a YouGov poll highlighted growing appetite for the doner kebab: despite rising prices — an average of €6.70 in 2025, up 47% since 2021 — orders increased about 15% over the same period, with roughly one in three Germans eating kebabs at least once a month. Market researchers described the dish as a “crisis-resistant classic,” as remaining customers buy more frequently even as some have stopped.
The Baden-Württemberg vote will be watched closely as a barometer of public sentiment toward Merz and as an early indicator ahead of the other regional contests later this year.