🇩🇪 German state & local elections

[Middle-aged Europe]

CDU meanwhile introduced their cabinet positions, among them music manager Joe Chialo as senator for cultural affair. He hasn't served in public office before and would be the second black state cabinet member in Germany.

Well, the third one, actually... Aminata Touré in Schleswig-Holstein & Doreen Denstädt in Thuringia being the other two.

Chialo helds the distinction of being the first black man - and first black politician not affiliated with the Greens - to become a minister at the state-level though.

[Estrella]

CDU meanwhile introduced their cabinet positions, among them music manager Joe Chialo as senator for cultural affair. He hasn't served in public office before and would be the second black state cabinet member in Germany.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Breaking: Kai Wagner failed to win an outright majority on the first ballot of the mayoral election in Berlin.

71 MPs voted for him. 80 would have been necessary. CDU/SPD coalition has in theory 86.

That accounts for 15 (probable) SPD dissidents... out of 34 SPD MPs total.

On to the second ballot.

According to the state constitution, Wegner wouldn't need an actual majority on the third ballot, but only a plurality.

But considering that 44% of the SPD caucuses' members seemed to have refused to vote for him on the first ballot that puts the viability of the CDU/SPD coalition a bit in doubt.

Then again, the next regular election is scheduled for 2026, so this coalition would only need to hold for three years.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Second ballot: Wegner fails to win a majority again. He received 79 votes, one less than necessary.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Kevin Hönicke, member of the SPD state board and and deputy borough mayor of Berlin-Lichtenberg:

"The SPD in Berlin proves that it is not a reliable partner. A membership vote doesn't count and leadership is ineffective. For MPs this coalition is a matter of conscience where many don't follow their party. We have a lot of work ahead of us."


https://twitter.com/KevinHoenicke/status/1651558361597444096?s=20

[Middle-aged Europe]

Fun fact: If Wegner gets exactly the same result on the third ballot than on the second one he still won't be elected despite the fact that it he doesn't require a majority anymore.

On the second ballot there were 79 yes votes, 79 no votes, and one invalid vote which doesn't actually fulfill the "more yes than no votes" rule of the third ballot.


Internal "test" votes of the respective parties following the failed first ballot showed that everyone in the CDU supposedly voted for Wegner and all but two in the SPD. Which obviously means that someone's lying about their votes here.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Greens and Left apparently plan to file a motion to postpone the mayoral election, citing disagreements with CDU/SPD over an legal interpretation of the third ballot clause in the state constitution.

The disagreement in question I have alluded to in my post above. It's disputed whether Wegner would be elected mayor if he receives a plurality of votes or more yes than no votes. There would be a dfference between the two in a close election depending on the abstentions and all.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Green/Left motion has been dismissed. Third ballot starts now... results expected in about half an hour.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Third ballot: 86 yes votes, 70 no votes, 3 abstentions.

Kai Wegner is elected mayor.


Plot twist - AfD announces that they have voted for Wegner on third ballot:

https://twitter.com/JuliusBetschka/status/1651595834054656006

[JimJamUK]

Breaking: Kai Wagner failed to win an outright majority on the first ballot of the mayoral election in Berlin.

71 MPs voted for him. 80 would have been necessary. CDU/SPD coalition has in theory 86.

That accounts for 15 (probable) SPD dissidents... out of 34 SPD MPs total.

But considering that 44% of the SPD caucuses' members seemed to have refused to vote for him on the first ballot that puts the viability of the CDU/SPD coalition a bit in doubt.

Christ, you might expect a few dissenters but for almost half your Parliamentary party to ignore the instruction of both the leadership and the membership is ridiculous. Why are so many of them doing this? It hardly suggests plain sailing for the duration of the government.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Really, this city is such a joke.

It may not actually be SPDers who are voting against. I would assume a number of CDU deputies are voting against, considering the contract is 98% the SPD platform, and Kai Wegner has brought in many "outsiders" that rubs the old-timers the wrong way.

But we'll never know for sure. Maybe we can ask for the first names

[Middle-aged Europe]

Breaking: Kai Wagner failed to win an outright majority on the first ballot of the mayoral election in Berlin.

71 MPs voted for him. 80 would have been necessary. CDU/SPD coalition has in theory 86.

That accounts for 15 (probable) SPD dissidents... out of 34 SPD MPs total.

But considering that 44% of the SPD caucuses' members seemed to have refused to vote for him on the first ballot that puts the viability of the CDU/SPD coalition a bit in doubt.

Christ, you might expect a few dissenters but for almost half your Parliamentary party to ignore the instruction of both the leadership and the membership is ridiculous. Why are so many of them doing this? It hardly suggests plain sailing for the duration of the government.

The Berlin SPD's left wing - including the SPD's youth organization - wanted a continuation of Red-Red-Green, or if not possible to go into the opposition. In any case they didn't want to serve as the junior partner in a coalition with the CDU. The relatively close result of the SPD membership vote reflected that split. And apparently SPD state leadership then failed spectacularly in keeping their own MPs in line and/or convincing them.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

An extremely farcical conclusion makes sense given that the entire 're-run' election was extremely farcical.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Let the debate begin whether the AfD voted for Wegner or not!
(Somewhat relevant question, because when the AfD elected Thomas Kemmerich in Thuringia in 2020 he announced his resignation as minister-president three days later).

Wegner received 86 votes on the third ballot, exactly the number of MPs CDU and SPD have together, meaning they could have managed to bring all their members in line now.

If all 17 AfD MPs voted for Wegner this means that he received only 69 votes from the ranks of his own coalition, two fewer than on the first ballot.

The first scenario seems likelier than the second one IMO, but there's also the third option that some (half?) of the AfD caucus may have voted for Wegner.

I guess this could be cleared up as soon as individual MPs (from CDU, SPD, and/or AfD) actually come clean about who voted for whom. And if it was just a publicity stunt by the AfD leadership they probably won't be able to keep that secret forever, since they have a inquisitive press on them now.

[Kabam]

If the AfD voted, it's very likely that they have not all voted for him, because that was that tactically smart thing to do. They have no interest that Wegner gets 97 votes. They want to be the deciding factor.

I don't think CDU & SPD suddenly voted unanimously after all the drama. So there were probably a few AfD votes, but there is really no way to find out how many.

[Middle-aged Europe]

If the AfD voted, it's very likely that they have not all voted for him, because that was that tactically smart thing to do. They have no interest that Wegner gets 97 votes. They want to be the deciding factor.

I don't think CDU & SPD suddenly voted unanimously after all the drama. So there were probably a few AfD votes, but there is really no way to find out how many.

Probably true, and unlike Thuringia things are a bit murkier now, since back then we had two opposing candidates and the candidate whose victory wasn't actually expected won due to a surprise vote of the AfD.

From the AfD's point of view - if the intention was to sow similar chaos - it probably would have been the smartest move to go in for Wegner with all of their MPs on the second ballot (when still an outright majority was required and immediately after presumaby 15 coalition MP had voted nay) making it the most obvious that he could have been only elected with the AfD's help. Then a Wegner resignation in the style of Kemmerich would have been the most likely.

[Middle-aged Europe]

AfD leader Karin Brinker now says that about half of her party's MPs voted for Wegner.

Maybe legit, maybe a lie now that she knows the precise results of the election and what the most plausible claim would be.

It would mean that the number of coalition MPs voting for Wegner on the second ballot (79) had roughly stayed the same on the third.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's pure shithousery, but (critically) incompetent shithousery, which, again, is appropriate given the general farce.

[Middle-aged Europe]

To be fair, today's melodrama could very well have happened under a continuation of Red-Green-Red too... just this time with dissidents from the SPD's right!!

Black-Green would have been a relatively safe bet to prevent it, even though I personally would have preferred Red-Green-Red myself.

[President Johnson]

Really, this city is such a joke.

It may not actually be SPDers who are voting against. I would assume a number of CDU deputies are voting against, considering the contract is 98% the SPD platform, and Kai Wegner has brought in many "outsiders" that rubs the old-timers the wrong way.

But we'll never know for sure. Maybe we can ask for the first names

Berlin at this point should just be merged into Brandenburg

I wouldn't rule out some CDU members voting against Wegner, though not that many. Most opposition votes came from the SPD, I'm sure. CDU in the end doesn't care that much about policies. They never have. All they care about his getting in power and keeping that power for themselves and their special interests. Markus Söder is the biggest example of them all. This guy has turned like a pretzel multiple times over last few years on pretty much every issue.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The German Press Agency has apparently asked all members of the AfD caucus whether they've voted for Wegner. So far, five of them have answered in the affimative, bringing the number of coalition MPs who have voted for Wegner down to 81, which is still a majority in its own right.

The spin perpetuated by many CDU and SPD representatives this evening that the 86 MPs who had voted for Wegner in the end were supposedly all 86 MPs of the coalition is a bit dishonest though.

[President Johnson]

The German Press Agency has apparently asked all members of the AfD caucus whether they've voted for Wegner. So far, five of them have answered in the affimative, bringing the number of coalition MPs who have voted for Wegner down to 81, which is still a majority in its own right.

The spin perpetuated by many CDU and SPD representatives this evening that the 86 MPs who had voted for Wegner in the end were supposedly all 86 MPs of the coalition is a bit dishonest though.

Everybody likes treason, nobody likes traitors. Sometimes I think it would be interesting for these ballots to be non-secret.

[President Johnson]

First prognosis for Bremen:

[buritobr]

Voting in Bremen 2023 according to demographic group

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Why is there no AFD ?