Overview

• Preliminary official results show the CDU at 33.3% and the SPD at 22.1%, with the AfD up to 14.5% ahead of the Greens on 13.5% and turnout rising to 56.8%.
• AfD candidates advanced to Oberbürgermeister runoffs in Gelsenkirchen, Duisburg and Hagen after strong gains in parts of the Ruhrgebiet.
• Major-city contests move to 28 September runoffs, including Cologne (Berivan Aymaz vs. Torsten Burmester), Düsseldorf (Stephan Keller vs. Clara Gerlach) and Bonn (Katja Dörner vs. Guido Déus).
• CDU and SPD leaders said they will back each other’s candidates in runoffs where they face the AfD to prevent far-right mayoral victories.
• Party figures voiced concern over the AfD’s advance, and the vote is widely read as the first political mood test for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s federal government.