Overview

• SPD nominees Sigrid Emmenegger and Ann-Katrin Kaufhold and CDU/CSU nominee Günter Spinner each cleared the required threshold in a secret Bundestag ballot, filling three seats in Karlsruhe.
• With 613 MPs voting, Emmenegger received 446 yes votes, Kaufhold 440 and Spinner 424, all above the 409 needed for a two‑thirds majority.
• The governing CDU/CSU–SPD bloc depended on opposition votes, with the Greens backing all three candidates and Die Linke’s stance decisive after the Union declined talks.
• A new Infratest dimap poll for NDR puts the AfD at 38% in Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern, ahead of the SPD at 19% and the CDU at 13%, echoing strong AfD readings reported in other eastern states.
• Saxony‑Anhalt’s premier Reiner Haseloff called for a revised climate timetable to protect energy‑intensive sectors, while Brandenburg’s interior minister reviewed a decade of migration and the Landtag rejected AfD hardline proposals.