Lower Saxony is key to Germany’s energy transition – with more than 7GW, it currently hosts a quarter of its operating wind capacity – but the result holds wider implications for the nation’s renewables ambitions.

Voters gave Merkel’s Social Democrat (SPD) opponents 32.6% and the Greens 13.7%, which translates into a one-seat majority in the state parliament in Hanover – just enough to elect SPD candidate Stephan Weil as new state premier.

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