People and Politics | The SPD and Hessen State Elections

Voters in the German state of Hessen go to the polls once again on January 18th to choose a new state government - less than a year after state elections failed to produce a stable coalition. Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel has been chosen to lift Hessen's state SPD party out of a recent slump in voter support --a difficult task indeed. After last year's leading candidate Andrea Ypsilanti failed in her bid to put together a leftist coalition with the SPD, Greens and Left Party, current polls say the Social Democrats can only expect about 25 percent of the vote. Ypsilanti was once seen as a glimmer of hope for her party, but her political maneuvering has hurt the SPD's prospects going into a busy election year.

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