Overview

• About 13.7 million people are eligible to vote on September 14 in the first major ballot since the federal election under Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
• NRW’s interior minister expects an unusually high number of runoffs on September 28 as crowded fields and several retirements make outright first‑round wins unlikely.
• The AfD is on fewer ballots than major rivals, contesting only about 23 percent of mayoral races and fielding council lists in just over 60 percent of municipalities, limiting prospects for executive posts.
• Surveys show the AfD elevated elsewhere — around 37 percent in Thuringia (Insa) and roughly 19 percent in Bavaria (Forsa) — but local outcomes in NRW hinge on issues like housing, education, mobility and infrastructure.
• In Münster, long‑serving CDU mayor Markus Lewe steps down after 16 years; the CDU backs Dr. Georg Lunemann for the top job, and the AfD is not running a mayoral candidate.