🇩🇪 German state & local elections

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Here's the new thread about statewide and local elections in Germany.

Here's the link to the German Elections (Federal & EU) thread.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Let's start...

Yesterday, Markus Söder was reelected Minister President of Bavaria by the new Bavarian Landtag with 110 of 202 votes cast. The CSU and its coalition party, the Free Voters, have 112 members of parliament available; 103 voted were needed for re-election.
On the picture below, you can see him sworn in by the new Landtag President Isle Aigner, who used to be both the state economy minister the deputy minster president during the last legislative session.
The members of the new state government, however, haven't been announced yet. (I still hope for TV judge and FW representative Alexander Hold to become justice minister.)

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Will post pictures of Sen. Cruz and Gov. Abbott being sworn in again here because Bayern and Texas were so similar this year politically: Greens/Beto/Dems gaining a lot but failing narrowly to topple the incumbents.

I considered writing the same thing.
I even started a thread because of the striking similarities some weeks ago.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

The next statewide election will be held in Bremen on May 26, 2019 - at the same time as the European elections and maaaaaaaybe the federal snap elections.
The Senate (= government) President is by virtue of his office also the mayor of the Hanseatic City of Bremen. (The Land of Bremen consists of the two cities Bremen and Bremerhaven.)
This kind of personal union is, as far as I know, unique.
(That kind of personal union existed in the German Reich, where the Prussian Minister President was also the Chancellor of the North German Confederation and where the Prussian King was also the German Emperor.)

Normally, the Bremen state elections attract much media attention due to the Land's tiny size and the foreseeable results, but this time it might change as both the CDU and Greens could occupy the Mayor's office. It will be also interesting to see how the AfD will perform after Lucke has left that party.

This is a photo of Bremen Mayor Carsten Sieling. I'd guess 90% of all Germans couldn't identify him, and when told that he's Bremen's Senate President, only 49% could say his name.



Edit: I forgot to add one important thing; the Bremische Bürgerschaft is the only state parliament left with a four-year legislative term. Hamburg extended the length of the legislative period of its parliament into five years, and that amendment is already effective for the current  Hamburgische Bürgerschaft elected in 2015.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Now that I think about it I am wondering why I never thought about this:

The Senate and its president (i.e. the government and the governor) are elected by the Bürgerschaft (i.e. the state parliament). The Bürgerschaft consists of two delegations, 68 delegates from the Stadtgemeinde of Bremen proper and 15 from Bremerhaven. The 68 delegates from Bremen at the same time form the Stadtbürgerschaft (i.e. the city parliament of Bremen proper).
But as Hades said, the senate president automatically becomes the mayor of Bremen proper and the senators (i.e. ministers) become the Dezernenten (local government). Hence the mayor of Bremen proper is also elected by the citizens of another city, that is Bremerhaven. In the extreme case the mayor and his city government could even not have a majority in the city parliament. (This of course happens all the time in some other German Länder, where the mayor is directly elected like the American or French president.) Weird.

I just read on Wikipedia that the representatives from the City of Bremen elected to the statewide Bürgerschaft also constitute the city council called Stadtbürgerschaft. (The City of Bremerhaven elects its separate Stadtverordnetenversammlung with its own members.)
Thus, there are even three kinds of personal unions: Mayor ↔ Senate President / departments ↔ Senate / Stadtbürgerschaft Bremische ↔ Bürgerschaft

The most controversial thing would occur if someone from Bremerhaven becomes Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Bremen. Weird.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

The term "Land-wide", which would be the most accurate translation, would sound strange. Plus, whenever an election is held in a Land, the anglophone press refers to them as state elections.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Anyway, there's some hodgepodge going on in Hesse.
Do you still know the results?



The Greens received 94 more votes than the SPD. At least that's what we were told after Election Day. However, the results are reported to have been Kemp'ed.

There server-based election software was down, so that the election assistants had to note the results by hand, whereby several mistakes had been made: results were mixed up, figures were twisted, ballot papers were forgotten; in some precincts results were even only estimated, based on the results in adjacent precincts.
The City of Frankfurt has recounted votes in several of its 490 precincts, and it is reported that the results in 12 of them are flawed and about 2,000 votes are affected.

The allocation of seats will probably not affected by the recount, buuuuuuut the SPD could become the second-strongest party in Hesse, provide the opportunity of new coalition talks: The FDP had always ruled out the possibility of a Green-led traffic light coalition, but with the SPD becoming the strongest party in such a set-up, the FDP have become open to negotiations with them and the Greens.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

The official Hesse state election results results have finally been released. (Yes, not only Florida and Georgia have to suffer from ballot counting scandals.)
The margin between the Greens and the SPD has decreased from 91 to 66 votes, thus the SPD is still only number 3. A traffic-light coalition can therefore be ultimately ruled out. Sorry, President Johnson! 🤷‍♂️

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

So does this mean CDU-Grüne again?

Will Grüne even try to form a coalition?

Yes and no.
The FDP had rejected a green-led traffic-coalition out of hand.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Here are the latest polls for this year's state elections:

Bremen (May 26) CDU: 25% (+2.6%) SPD: 24% (-8.8%) Greens: 18% (+2.9%) Left: 13% (+3.5%) AfD: 8% (+2.5%) FDP: 6% (-0.6%) Brandenburg (September 1) CDU: 21% (-2.0%) SPD: 21% (-10.9%) AfD: 19% (+6.8%) Left: 17% (-1.6%) Greens: 10% (+3.8%) FDP: 5% (+3.5%) Saxony (September 1) CDU: 29% (-10.4%) AfD: 25% (+15.3%) Left: 18% (-0.9%) SPD: 10% (-2.4%) Greens: 9% (+3.3%) FDP: 6% (+2.2%) Thuringia (October 27) CDU: 23% (-10.5%) Left: 22% (-6.2%) AfD: 22% (+11.4%) SPD: 12% (-0.4%) Greens: 12% (+6.3%) FDP: 6% (+3.5%)

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Here are the latest polls for this year's state elections:

Bremen (May 26) CDU: 25% (+2.6%) SPD: 25% (-7.8%) Greens: 18% (+2.9%) Left: 11% (+1.5%) AfD: 7% (+2.5%) FDP: 6% (+0.4%) Brandenburg (September 1) SPD: 22% (-9.9%) CDU: 20% (-3.0%) AfD: 19% (+6.8%) Left: 16% (-2.6%) Greens: 12% (+5.8%) FDP: 5% (+3.5%) Saxony (September 1) CDU: 28% (-11.4%) AfD: 26% (+16.3%) Left: 16% (-2.9%) SPD: 10% (-2.4%) Greens: 9% (+3.3%) FDP: 6% (+2.2%) Thuringia (October 27) CDU: 27% (-6.5%) Left: 25% (-3.2%) AfD: 19% (+8.4%) SPD: 10% (-2.4%) Greens: 7% (+1.3%) FDP: 6% (+3.5%)

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

ROFL @ SPD

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Horrible news for the SPD in its mega stronghold Bremen, which holds its state election on May 26.
Imagine Washington D.C. elects a Republican mayor... 😆

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Well, those numbers are certainly bad for the SPD...but how Jamaica-friendly are the Bremen Greens?

They will certainly definitely form a red-green-red coalition.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

cdu numbers aren't much better than spd. it's nice to see linke that high in thuringia and berlin.

That's because Bodo Ramelow, a Linke politician, is the minister president of Thuringia.
He came up, however, with a very unpopular proposal just tody that will cost him very many votes...

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

cdu numbers aren't much better than spd. it's nice to see linke that high in thuringia and berlin.

That's because Bodo Ramelow, a Linke politician, is the minister president of Thuringia.
He came up, however, with a very unpopular proposal just tody that will cost him very many votes...

The guy is pretty much done anyway, I doubt his coalition will get another majority.

I guess there will be a Kenya coalition in Thuringia, just like in neighboring Saxony-Anhalt.
The minister-presidential candidate of the CDU, Mike Mohring, has developed malignant cancer, but he has successfully been over chemotherapy.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Horrible news for the SPD in its mega stronghold Bremen, which holds its state election on May 26.
Imagine Washington D.C. elects a Republican mayor... 😆

I don't have to imagine. New York City has regularly elected Republicans as mayor (i.e. Giuliani and Bloomberg) and so has Los Angeles.

But Washington D.C. is way bigger Demcratic stronghold than NYC or LA.
Berlin and Hamburg have voted CDU in the past also, but Bremen literally never did.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Here is the current composition of the 16 German state governments:

Looking at tht map, one thing comes into my mind...
Y'all know that we Germans give every kind of coalition a name based on the colors of its parties being involved: Ampel, Jamaika/Schwampel, Tigerente/Biene Maja, Dänenampel, Afghanistan/Kenia, Pizza-Connection etc.
Some weeks a ago, there was a question asked at a quiz show how the media call the CSU-Free Voters coalition. I have never heard of the answer (nor did the "politics expert"), but I googled it and the Bavarian press really seems to use that neologism...

Take a guess! I'll give you a hint: The coalition is named after a tropical fruit...

Btw, for those interested: There were rumors circulating (which we discussed here) that the German version of Greg Mathis/Joe Brown , former TV judge Alexander Hold, could become the new justice minister, but he didn't; he only became one of the vice presidents of the Bavarian Landtag. The new justice minister is CSU politician Georg Eisenreich.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Notate bene: In order to enter the Bremische Bürgerschaft, a party needs to pass the 5% threshold in either Bremen or Bremerhaven. That's why the BIW (Bürger in Wut = "citizens in a rage") has been able to enter the state parliament since 2007 despite receiving less of 5% statewide, but thanks to passing the 5% threshold in Bremerhaven.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Bremen is apparently close between CDU and SPD.

I think this is the first time since the foundation of the Federal Republic (And maybe even earlier) that the Bremen state election is exciting.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

In 2015, Bremen Mayor Jens Böhrnsen immediately resigned after the state election because his SPD got the worst result ever:

Current Mayor Carsten Sieling is likely to get 10% fewer votes than Böhrnsen, perhaps coming off worse than the CDU for the very first time, but he will probably not step down.
Sieling is not only the least popular governor of a German state, he is even so unknown that even many political leaders don't know his name. You can see below how Sahra Wagenknecht (Left), Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens) and Christian Lindner (FDP) start stammering when asked the Mayor's name... 😅

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1132678410583646219

R2G and Jamaica have majority.

No, those are totally wrong exit polls.  

The AfD is polling at 7% according to ARD.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1132678410583646219

R2G and Jamaica have majority.

No, those are totally wrong exit polls.  

The AfD is polling at 7% according to ARD.

What do you mean, "totally wrong"? Those are FGW's numbers for ZDF. Infratest dimap has a bit different numbers for ARD. Later in the night we'll see who got it closer.

A difference of 2% is huge for a middle-sized party like the AfD. One oughta mention that ZDF is way more left-wing than ARD.
It'll take much time time to tally the votes as the Bremen citizens have five votes that they can allocate between different parties and candidates in open lists. Plus, municipal advisory council were also elected in Bremen today, using the same complicated open-list voting method.