The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Lower Saxony is entering the election with Sebastian Lechner with Sebastian Lechner as its lead candidate 2027 state election. The state committee unanimously elected the state party leader on 14 November 2026 at a small party conference in Hanover unanimously. There was no rival candidate.
Lechner wants to replace Minister President Olaf Lies replace the Minister-President of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and return the CDU to state government. The election will take place on 26 September 2027. Lower Saxony is currently governed by a coalition of the SPD and the Greens. In the 2022 state election, the CDU won 28.1 per cent and the SPD 33.4 per cent.
The 45-year-old Lechner leads the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament as well as the state party organisation. At the party conference, deputy state party leader Gitta Connemann nominated him on behalf of the state executive. She pointed to his experience as an entrepreneur and local politician and called on the party to support him in the election campaign. After the vote, general secretary Marco Mohrmann announced the unanimous result by a show of cards.
Lechner cites security, education, the economy and an effective state as priorities. In Hanover, the party presented its Lower Saxony Plan The document, which the party says contains 25 proposals for reform, is intended to serve as the basis for its election manifesto. It covers areas including schools, agriculture and social policy.
In the event of taking office, Lechner pledged to raise the calculated provision of teaching hours to 103 per cent by 2029. The figure compares available teaching hours with the calculated requirement. In the 2025/26 school year, it stood at around 97 per cent, according to the Ministry of Education. Among other measures, Lechner wants to attract more people to enter teaching through alternative routes and bring retired teachers back.
For Volkswagen he proposed an agreement between owners, the executive board and the parties to collective bargaining. It is intended to safeguard sites and make costs more competitive. The state and other major shareholders could temporarily forgo their dividends, he said. Lower Saxony holds 20 per cent of the voting rights in the group.
On security policy, Lechner announced more police staff and a stronger presence on the streets. Following criticism of earlier remarks on clan crime, he stressed that the police must act lawfully and proportionately.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister-President Hendrik Wüst Lechner was backed by Wüst, who appeared as a guest speaker. At the same time, Wüst called on the governing coalition at federal level to reduce the electricity tax to the European minimum for everyone.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).