State leader Stephan Weil (right) is hoping to fend off Bernd Althusmann (left) in the Lower Saxony election
The state's incumbent leader, Social Democrat Stephan Weil, is polling slightly ahead of his conservative rival. But Berlin's energy policy could sway voters more than state issues.German voters in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony are casting their ballots on Sunday in a regional election amid an acute energy crisis and a looming recession.
The most recent polls have Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) slightly ahead at 31-32% of the vote. The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of former chancellor Angela Merkel, is polling at 27-28%.
With Germans' soaring energy bills dominating the race over local issues like agricultural policy and a teacher shortage, the election is seen as a key test of confidence for Scholz's coalition government in Berlin.
"Never have I seen so many question marks and worries on citizens' faces," the state's SPD premier Stephan Weil told the German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, adding that this election campaign had been "the most difficult of my life."
Energy on the agenda
One major point of contention has been the federal government's decision to close down Lower Saxony's Emsland nuclear power plant, which is one of three remaining nuclear power plants in German
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