On Sunday, the Social Democrats of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz trailed the opposition conservatives in Berlin for the first time in more than two decades following a significant setback in a provincial election.
The Social Democrats lost the vote on local concerns. Still, Mr Scholz is widely criticized for hesitating to lend military help to Ukraine during the Russian incursion last year, so this result is particularly disheartening.
During the court-ordered rerun of the election in 2021, the chancellor's party suffered its lowest performance in the capital since World War II.
The conservative CDU, in opposition in the city and the Bundestag, increased its support from 18 to 28 per cent.
Courts ordered Berlin, one of the country's 16 federal states, to return to the polls after determining that the 2021 election did not meet essential democratic criteria due to numerous voting irregularities.
The conclusion of the rerun casts doubt on the partnership between the Social Democrats, the Greens, and the far-left Linke party.
"If we have an opportunity for an SPD-led government, then we will try to organize a stable majority for it," incumbent Social Democrat Mayor Franziska Giffey told ZDF following initial projections.
However, preliminary results indicate that her junior coalition partner, the Greens, may finish ahead of the Social Democrats with approximately 18,5% of the vote.
The Linke party was expected to have received approximately 13% of the vote.
Voters appear to have punished Ms Giffey and the Social Democrats following violent events in the capital during the New Year, in which revellers attacked emergency services with pyrotechnics in immigrant-dense neighbourhoods.
The conservative opposition charged Berlin's leadership with a lack of control over the issue, sparking a citywide discussion on integration.
In addition, the election was marked by unhappiness over growing rent rates in the capital and debates over transportation policy.
The election results reflect the national challenges of the Social Democrats as Mr Scholz's government, which has been in power for just over a year, grapples with rising inflation and the aftermath of the war in Ukraine.
The difficulties experienced by Mr Scholz's alliance with the Greens and the liberal FDP have benefited opposing parties.
Together with the conservative CDU, the far-right AfD raised its share of the vote in Sunday's rerun to almost nine per cent, according to calculations.
The Berlin rerun is only the second time in Germany's post-war history that a state election has been declared illegitimate after Hamburg's vote in 1991 was marred by irregularities.
The organization of the 2021 election on the same day as a national vote, a local referendum on housing, and the Berlin marathon resulted in significant logistical issues.
As roads were closed for the election, ballot papers became trapped in traffic, and lines formed outside polling centres that struggled to process votes.
Sunday's poll took place under the watchful eye of foreign election observers from the Council of Europe, who were invited by the city to rebuild confidence following the debacle of 2021.
Additionally, Berlin recruited 42,000 voting assistants, 8,000 more than in the previous election, and provided polling locations with additional ballots to prevent shortages.
The German Parliament has also decided that national elections would be partially replayed in Berlin on a date to be determined.
