Despite the push of the CDU, the mayor SPD of the German capital, Franziska Giffey, could keep his post.
by Thomas Wieder (Berlin, correspondent)
History. The adjective is not too strong to qualify the victory of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Sunday, February 12, in the city-Land of Berlin. With 28.2 % of the vote, the Conservatives increased by 10.2 points compared to the elections of September 26, 2021, which had been canceled due to a series of irregularities. Since 1999, the CDU had never come to the lead in the German capital, whose town hall has been led by the Social Democrats (SPD) since 2001.
Sunday, they were severely sanctioned. With 18.4 % of the votes (- 3 points), the SPD records the worst score in its history in a city where it has always exceeded 20 %. For his leader, Franziska Giffey, the blow is hard. In December 2021, this former family minister of Angela Merkel, landed by the government seven months earlier following accusations of plagiarism concerning her doctoral thesis, had become, at 43, the first woman elected mayor of Berlin. Less than a year and a half later, she is politically very weakened, but that does not mean that she will have to leave her post.
For Franziska Giffey, the horizon cleared shortly after midnight, more than six hours after the end of the ballot, when the results of the last polling stations fell. With one hundred and five votes more than the Greens, on nearly 1.5 million votes cast, the SPD enjoys a short advance which can allow it to keep the town hall if it manages to convince the environmentalists and the party From left Die Linke, with whom he has governed Berlin since 2016, to form a new coalition. Arithmetically, it is possible: even if they also fell a little compared to 2021, the Greens (18.4 %, – 0.5) and Die Linke (12.2 %, – 1.9) have enough elected officials to form a majority with the SPD. Politically, it is also plausible, environmentalists having clearly indicated their preference for a new “red-Red-Verte” coalition rather than for an alliance with the CDU.
dizzying increase in rents
Although it is largely in mind, the conservatives could therefore find themselves again in the opposition. Their strong push, on Sunday, is nonetheless heavy in the political level. On a Berlin scale, first. Despite the low notoriety of its candidate, Kai Wegner, the CDU managed to mobilize the voters by posing as the security guard and the car lawyer, two promising themes after the violent incidents that took place in the neighborhood Popular of Neukölln on the evening of December 31, 2022, and after several controversial decisions made by the town hall in terms of car traffic.
You have 48.1% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.