In brief
Incumbent Ralf Reinhardt defeated AfD's Torsten Arndt by more than 20 percentage points in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin runoff.
The party, classified as right-wing extremist by Brandenburg's domestic intelligence, has now lost all six district administrator elections in 2026.
CDU and The Left, having supported independent Thomas Kresse in the first round, shifted their backing to Reinhardt to block the AfD; the Greens had supported him from the start.
The runoff
Ralf Reinhardt (SPD) won the second-round vote for Ostprignitz-Ruppin's Landrat on Sunday, earning 60.6 percent of the vote against Torsten Arndt of the AfD, who received 39.4 percent. Voter turnout stood at about 46 percent. Reinhardt cleared the required quorum of 15 percent of eligible voters, which translates to 12,540 votes. It was his third eight-year term, but the first he secured by direct election after being appointed by the district council in 2010 and 2018.
- Ralf Reinhardt (SPD)
- 60.6 %
- Torsten Arndt (AfD)
- 39.4 %
Data from the article text
The path to the runoff
In the first round on June 7, Reinhardt led with 34.7 percent, followed by Arndt (30.3 percent), independent Thomas Kresse (23.9 percent), and Ronald Mundt of the Free Voters (11.1 percent). The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) called for a boycott of the runoff, urging supporters to stay home or invalidate their ballots. CDU and The Left, which had backed Kresse in the first round, recommended voting for Reinhardt in the runoff to block the AfD. The Greens, who sit in a joint faction with the SPD in the district council, supported Reinhardt from the start.
Political backdrop
Brandenburg's domestic intelligence agency classifies the AfD's state branch as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization. The party had reached runoffs in five of the six Landrat elections in Brandenburg this year but failed to win any. Its only local executive success remains the mayoralty of Zehdenick, won in May by René Stadtkewitz.