Hamburg votes amid German political tumult

HAMBURG: Voters in the prosperous German city-state of Hamburg went to the polls Sunday, with the centre left expected to hold its own against the Greens who have been enjoying rising popularity across the country. Turnout among the 1.3 million voters aged 16 and up was “somewhat higher” than in 2015, at 29.5 percent around 11:00 am (1000 GMT), election supervisor Oliver Rudolf told public broadcaster NDR. Federal politics in Germany has appeared particularly chaotic in recent weeks, with a regional vote in the former communist east bringing down Chancellor Angela Merkel´s chosen successor. Over the longer term, the progressive, ecologist Greens look set to replace the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) as the main national rival to Merkel´s CDU conservatives, with support for them surging last year and now almost twice as high as for the SPD. But things are not so gloomy for the centre left in Hamburg, where despite the Greens´ gains, the SPD looks set to maintain its grip on the mayor´s seat.