The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has won the election in the German capital, Berlin, according to forecasts, after a rerun of the polls held in 2021 which turned out to be chaotic, the results were annulled by the city’s highest court.
The result is a blow to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his party, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who have ruled Berlin in a coalition of changes for the past 22 years. According to German TV, the party was the worst performance in the capital since the second world war.
“The people of Berlin have made a clear view – they want more,” said Franziska Giffey, the city’s SPD mayor. “We must exercise humility in this situation.”
The victorious CDU said the result was proof of its campaign message that Berlin was a dysfunctional city in need of radical change. That perception grew among many voters after New Year’s celebrations in the capital turned violent, with violent attacks on police and firefighters.
But it is not clear whether the Christian Democrats will be able to form a government in the city where the majority vote traditionally. Most of the other major parties have no interest in joining the party.
“You can only form a government if you already have a majority in parliament and there are options outside the CDU,” former Berlin mayor Michael Müller told ARD TV on Sunday. “And we saw in the campaign there was a lot of . . . separating the Greens and the SPD from the CDU in terms of policy.
“The CDU did not campaign with an outstretched hand – on the contrary, they slammed many doors,” said Kevin Kühnert, SPD secretary general.
But the prominent Christian Democrat politician insists it is now time to take power in Berlin. “The CDU gained 10 percentage points and the government got a shell,” said Carsten Linnemann, deputy head of the CDU parliamentary group. “There is a clear winner and the public now expects that this winner will be given the opportunity to form the government.
Kai Wegner, CDU leader in Berlin, said there were “two options for a stable two-party coalition” – one between the CDU and the SPD, and one between the CDU and the Greens.
But even if the CDU wins the election, it is likely that the city will continue to be ruled by a three-way coalition between the SPD, the Greens and Die Linke, the hard-left party that has been in power since 2016.
Projections based on exit polls broadcast by ARD put the CDU at 27.4 percent, the Greens at 18.5 percent, the SPD at 18.3, Die Linke at 12.6 percent and the far-right Alternative for Germany at 9 percent.
Sunday’s election is the first time in Germany’s post-war history that regional elections have had to be repeated.
In the 2021 election, Berliners will have to queue for hours at polling stations, where there are no ballot papers or ballot boxes. Some stayed open until late to deal with the crowd, when the announcer had called the results.
Election observers from the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human rights body, were in Berlin on Sunday to monitor the polls.