NRW local elections: the SPD despite heavy losses to the Greens

KBiggest electoral victory for the CDU, another setback for the SPD and a record result for the Greens: in the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, voters gave a clear accent on Sunday. According to the provisional state result, Prime Minister Armin Laschet’s Christian Democrats received 34.3 percent of the vote. They were 3.2 percentage points below their 2014 result.

The second strongest force is therefore the Social Democrats, who after significant losses are just ahead of the Greens. According to Infratest Dimap’s forecast, the SPD loses 7.1 percentage points to only 24.3 percent, its worst result in a local NRW election. The Greens were able to increase their vote percentage by 8.3 percentage points to 20 percent. His best result at the state level in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The AfD improves to 5 percent after having played only a minor role in 2014 at 2.6 percent. 5.6 percent voted for the FDP. That’s 0.9 percentage points more than in 2014. At 3.8 percent, the left is 0.9 percentage points below the 2014 result, when it had reached 4.7 percent.

The 51.5 percent share was slightly higher than in 2014 (50 percent). The NRW local elections were viewed with particular tension this year. It was the last big vote before the CDU’s federal party conference in December, in which NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet requested the party chairmanship. “I’m happy it’s a good Sunday,” Laschet said. The vote was the largest election in Germany this year. “And the CDU won the elections.”

Protection of the environment and climate as the most important issue

According to an Infratest-Dimap poll commissioned by WDR, environmental and climate protection was the most important political issue for voters in local elections. The importance of the issue has increased significantly compared to the 2014 local elections, the WDR reported. WDR political scientist and election expert Martin Florack said this was also a success for the Greens, who had successfully taken up the issue in the debate.

According to an Infratest-Dimap poll commissioned by WDR, the Greens obtained by far the largest number of votes among young voters. Among young people aged 16 to 24, their participation was 33 percent: the CDU (22 percent), the SPD (16), the FDP (8), the left (6) and the AfD (4) are very behind in this age group. The Greens clearly outperformed their overall expected result for all age groups of 19 percent among young voters.

In addition to the municipal parliaments, mayors, mayors and district administrators were also elected in NRW. the Suburb Mayor Henriette Reker (independent) faces a runoff. In Sunday’s OB elections, she was well ahead of voters with 45.1 percent of the vote, but she did not reach an absolute majority, as figures for the city published Monday morning on the Internet showed. SPD member of state parliament Andreas Kossiski took second place with 26.8 percent of the vote and will now run the second round of elections against Reker on September 27. The result was somewhat surprising, as pre-election voter polls had promised that the 63-year-olds would be re-elected on the first ballot.

Reker has been the head of the City Council since 2015 and was a candidate for a second term. The independent politician has the support of the CDU and the Greens.

At the mayoral elections in the third largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia Dortmund SPD applicant Thomas Westphal must be in the second round against his CDU competitor Andreas Hollstein. Westphal got 35.9 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election, 25.9 percent of voters voted for Hollstein. Former president of the state of Los Verdes, Daniela Schneckenburger, was 21.8 percent in third place, the city announced on the Internet early Monday morning.

Westphal has been the economic promoter of the largest city in the Ruhr area. Hollstein, formerly the mayor of Altena in Sauerland, made a name for himself across the country when he campaigned for more asylum seekers to be taken in during the refugee crisis. So a mental patient attacked him with a knife. The former mayor of Dortmund, Ullrich Sierau (SPD), was no longer running.

The mayor of the SPD in Bochum, Thomas Eiskirch (49), won direct reelection in local elections. After counting all the constituencies, it reached 61.77 percent of the vote, as the city announced Sunday night. His challenger from the CDU, attorney Christian Haardt (55), got 20.33 percent. The Bochum Greens had agreed in advance with the SPD not to present their own candidate and to ask for Eiskirch’s support. The 49-year-old was a member of the SPD state parliament for ten years before being elected to preside over the city of 365,000.

In the state capital of NRW Düsseldorf SPD Mayor Thomas Geisel has to be in a runoff election against his CDU rival, Stephan Keller. Geisel won 26.3 percent of the vote in Sunday’s NRW local elections, as the city announced Monday morning online. Cologne city director Keller, who was the head of traffic and public order in Düsseldorf until 2016, received 34.2 percent. FDP candidate and Bundestag member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann achieved 12.5 percent. Green MP Stefan Engstfeld came in third with 17.4 percent.

Geisel has been mayor of Düsseldorf since 2014. The recovery of the OB chair in the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia for the CDU has set Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) as a special target.

CDU politician Thomas Kufen (47) remains the mayor of Essen. In Sunday’s local elections, the incumbent received 54.3 percent of the vote, as the city announced Sunday night on the Internet after counting all electoral districts. Challenger Oliver Kern (SPD, 54) was at 20.3 percent, Mehrdad Mostofizadeh (Greens, 51) at 12.2 percent.

Kufen has been mayor of the Ruhr area city, where 591,000 people live, since 2015.

In the mayoral election of Gelsenkirchen none of the candidates achieved an absolute majority. As the city announced Sunday night on the Internet after counting all constituencies, City Director Karin Welge (SPD, 57) received the most votes with 40.4 percent. In the second round on September 27, she will race against the CDU candidate, lawyer Malte Stuckmann (42). She got 25.1 percent on Sunday.

The third-highest number of votes was obtained by AfD candidate Jörg Schneider, with 12.1 percent. David Fischer of the Greens got 9.3 percent. Former Mayor Frank Baranowski (SPD, 58) has been in office since 2004. He wasn’t running again. Around 265,000 people live in Gelsenkirchen.

In Bonn Mayor Ashok-Alexander Sridharan (CDU) has to face a second round. In the OB election, he received the highest approval with 34.46 percent of the vote, as announced by the city. But it was not enough for the necessary absolute majority. With 27.59 percent of the vote, green candidate Katja Dörner came in second. In a second vote on September 27, Bonn will have to choose between her and Sridharan.

Sridharan has been in office since 2015. At that time he broke the SPD’s more than 20-year subscription to the Bonn OB chair for the CDU. In addition, a CDU politician with a migrant background became mayor of a major German city for the first time. Dörner is a member of the Bundestag.

In the mayoral election of Wuppertal SPD incumbent Andreas Mucke should be in a runoff against joint CDU and Greens candidate Uwe Schneidewind. According to the city, challenger Schneidewind reached 40.8 percent on the first ballot Sunday night. Mucke won 37.0 percent of the vote. Schneidewind was director of the renowned Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. Mucke had beaten then-CDU incumbent Peter Jung in a runoff in the 2015 election.

In Münster Mayor Markus Lewe (CDU) missed a direct reelection. In local elections, he reached 44.55 percent of the vote on Sunday night, as the city announced after the scrutiny of all electoral districts. This means that a second round will be required in 14 days, in which Lewe competes against Peter Todeskino (Greens). Death Cinema obtained 28.47 percent of the votes. SPD candidate Michael Jung reached 16.3 percent. Administrative specialist Lewe, 55, has been mayor of the student town of about 310,000 residents since 2009. In 2015, he received nearly 60 percent of the vote when he was reelected.

In Mönchengladbach there is a runoff election for the successor to former Lord Mayor Hans Wilhelm Reiners (CDU). In local elections, the 31-year-old SPD candidate Felix Heinrichs received 37.48 percent of the vote. His competitor from the CDU, Frank Boss (59), a member of the state parliament, got 29.62 percent. The Greens’ OB candidate, Boris Wolkowski, withdrew from the race with 17.48 percent of the vote. Reiners incumbent did not run for election.

A few days before the elections, unknown persons tried to publish a false obituary with his details. The attempt was noticed in time.

In Aachen there is a runoff for the mayor’s office, with a candidate from the Greens as the clear winner of the first ballot. Sibylle Keupen received 38.9 percent of the vote at the polls on Sunday, as the city announced Monday morning. CDU candidate Harald Baal received 24.8 percent of the vote and came in second. There will be a second round between Keupen and Baal on September 27. SPD applicant Mathias Dopatka achieved 22.6 percent.