BERLIN 

German Social Democrats (SPD) won state elections in Hamburg on Sunday, providing a much-needed boost to their morale after the general election defeat they suffered last week.

Led by Peter Tschentscher, the most popular politician in the region, the SPD was projected to win 33.7% of the vote, according to public broadcaster ARD. 

Despite dropping more than 5% from the previous election, the Social Democrats maintained a clear lead over their rivals.

The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was expected to come in second with 19.8%, followed by the progressive Green Party at 18.1%. 

The socialist Die Linke, which made a significant breakthrough in the general elections on Feb. 23, was set to achieve its best-ever election result in Hamburg by 11.1%.

Tschentscher, who led his party to victory for the second time in Hamburg, said on Sunday night his preference would be to start coalition talks with the co-ruling Greens, but also added that he would like to also hold talks with the Christian Democrats.

“I'm not ruling anything out, we have to talk first. After five years, many things have happened. But I'm glad that with these elections we have the opportunity to form a stable two-party coalition,” he told public broadcaster ARD.

The far-right AfD party managed to increase its vote share by more than 2 percentage points compared to the previous election and was projected to reach 7.9%. However, this figure was significantly lower than the nationwide 20.8% vote share the party achieved in last week's general election.