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The green dream has come true. Katja Dörner has achieved what has never been done in North Rhine-Westphalia: on Sunday she won the mayor’s seat in a big city with 56 percent for the Greens. And then also in Bonn, the former federal capital. Her predecessor and competitor from the CDU, Ashok-Alexander Sridharan, only broke the Red Bonn in the last local elections after 21 years of continuous reign of the SPD. And it started with official and celebrity bonuses. Because there has never been someone like Sridharan in a big German city, a mayor with a migrant background. But it should remain for him with a mandate.
Now there is a historic power shift in the pretty student town. After ten years in the Bundestag, Dörner, 44, is moving from the River Spree to the Rhine, and most recently as deputy leader of the Greens.
In Dortmund, however, the black-green lost. Thomas Westphal, the 53-year-old SPD candidate, has achieved what some SPD members secretly no longer believed possible: the SPD has at least retained its stronghold, which is almost the last stronghold in the Ruhr area.
Nadja Lüders, the leader of the local party, fights for Westphal’s strong shoulder at 7pm, hugs him and hands him a bouquet of red flowers. And from the back of the “Westfalia Room”, a comrade shouts: “The chamber of the heart is ours!” The government of the Social Democrats, uninterrupted for 74 years, in their “Chamber of Hearts”, which Herbert Wehner baptized, continues. Probably at least five years, even if the new mayor in the city council must now seek his majorities. The SPD lost several seats there in the first round of the NRW local elections, and the CDU and the Greens are stronger than ever.
Otherwise, the SPD can hardly be happy that night. But there are some positives for comrades: In Mönchengladbach, the only 31-year-old Felix Heinrichs clearly won 74 percent against the CDU candidate, and is now the youngest mayor in the country.
In many parts of the country, the Greens now play the key role
The most populous federal state in North Rhine-Westphalia experienced the second round of its local elections on Sunday and, at the same time, the first vote of a new political order. On September 13, the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia nearly doubled their national result to 20 percent and thus established themselves as the third party, now “big” alongside the SPD (24.3 percent) and the CDU (34 , 3 percent).
For a long time, the Social Democrats set the tone in the country and achieved good electoral results. This Sunday, the three parties were fighting for trophies in the state: in metropolises such as the megacity of Cologne, the capital of the state Düsseldorf or in the former stronghold of the SPD of Dortmund, no candidate had won an absolute majority 14 days ago. So now it was a duel for the town hall.
In many places, the key role the Greens now play in the country became clear. Ironically, the hometown of CDU Prime Minister Armin Laschet also falls on Green. 56-year-old educator Sibylle Keupen defeated the weak CDU competitor with 67.4 percent. Green politician Uwe Schneidewind was elected the new mayor of Wuppertal. The 54-year-old joint candidate of the Greens and the CDU prevailed over the SPD incumbent with 53.5 percent of the vote.
Armin Laschet was particularly pleased with the result in Düsseldorf that night. Düsseldorf and Stephan Keller had “saved the honor of the CDU,” Laschet said. Lawyer and CDU man Keller has won in the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia. The 50-year-old triumphed 56 percent over SPD incumbent Thomas Geisel. Keller has been the director of the city of Cologne until now and was previously the head of public order and traffic in Düsseldorf. With its victory, the CDU is the first to provide a mayor in a state capital. For the SPD, the loss of Düsseldorf is another setback. Mülheim an der Ruhr also fell to the CDU. And the OBs of the CDU were confirmed in Oberhausen and Münster.
Many NRW Greens have long regarded Henriette Reker as the secret green mayor. The independent lawyer, who has governed the cathedral city since 2015, is endorsed as black and green by the CDU. For many in the local union, however, the 63-year-old incumbent has long been “too green.” Before the elections, Reker had opposed a council decision allowing 1. FC Köln to expand its training center into a green belt. In the evening, Reker was happy about her next term. After counting almost all electoral districts, according to the city, with about 60 percent of the vote, she was unassailable against her SPD rival, Andreas Kossiski.
Only when more than 80 percent of the electoral districts were counted did the incumbent enter the city hall, he said beaming. Until Saturday night he was still fighting for the votes: “I am happy that it was so clear.” For them, the question now is how the city and its economy will cope with the Corona crisis, Reker said. His top Corona crisis manager, Stephan Keller, will no longer help him. Reker is asked if he will take a vacation. “Anyway, there is nowhere to go,” he replies, “so I’ll stay in Cologne.”
