The Greens in Hamburg went from 432,000 (2015’s results) to 963,000 (2020’s numbers). Part of their success is taking away votes from the SPD (left-of-center) and CDU (right-of-center). You can attribute this to three key things going on in Germany at present.
First, the Greta-people (Fridays For the Future) are pumping up enthusiasm for the Greens. Second, a fair number of Germans see the SPD Party as being a ‘dud’, and lacking any charisma or charm...both nationally and at the state level. Third, if you look at the top ten agenda items for politicians right now...seven of those have something connected to the Green Party.
There’s no doubt that as the national election approaches in the fall of 2021...Merkel’s CDU Party is going to have a rough time, and the SPD folks won’t be able to get past 15-percent of the national vote...which opens the door for the Greens to have a fairly high chance of winning that election.
Finally, I’ll point out this Hamburg regional topic which would make most laugh. There is such a large group of long-term unemployed in the city...that for this election, it was openly discussed by several leftist parties...the idea of giving ‘fake-jobs’ to people out of work for more than three years...to get them into the mindset of accepting employment. In Bavaria, they would have laughed you out of the bar for that suggestion.
AfD loses half of 0.8 they lost this time and they are out of government.
Hamburg has pretty much always been the most Left of German cities.
“In Bavaria, they would have laughed you out of the bar for that suggestion.”
Bavaria is sort of the Texas of Germany and should secede from the lunacy.