German SPD wins Saarland vote in boost for Scholz

FILE PHOTO: Election posters of Anke Rehlinger (L), top candidate for the Social Democratic party SPD and Tobias Hans, top candidate for the Christian Democratic Union party CDU for the upcoming March 27, 2022, election in Germany's smallest federal state of the Saarland are pictured in Voelklingen near the Saarland’s capital Saarbruecken, Germany March 21, 2022. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) scored a clear victory in a regional election in the state of Saarland on Sunday, according to preliminary results, helping Chancellor Olaf Scholz consolidate his power ahead of other regional votes this year.

The centre-left party will have enough seats for an absolute majority in the small western state, the first regional vote since the SPD unexpectedly beat the conservatives in a national election last year after 16 years of rule by Angela Merkel.