DAccording to the first projection, the SPD emerged as the winner of the Bremen state elections. The Social Democrats under the top candidate and Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte received almost 30 percent of the votes, around five percentage points more than in the 2019 election, when they got 24.9 percent of the votes. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert was very pleased. “We are extremely proud of the SPD in Bremen,” he said on ARD. Bovenschulte said on the evening of the election: “Number one is back, number one in Bremen, that’s us!”
According to the projections, the CDU and its top candidate Frank Imhoff will end up around 26 percent behind the SPD in Bremen. In the last election in Bremen, she received 26.7 percent of the votes, putting her ahead of the Social Democrats for the first time in the state’s history.
Carsten Linnemann, deputy party leader of the federal CDU, said: “One thing is clear: the way it looks in Bremen, you can’t go on like this. I think a new start is needed and Mr. Bovenschulte should take on this responsibility.”
The right-wing populist “Citizens in Anger” can record a success. According to the projections, the smallest party, which had previously only cleared the five percent hurdle in the Bremerhaven constituency, is around ten percent and thus ahead of the FDP, which achieved 5.2 percent. The “citizens in anger” are likely to have benefited significantly from the dispute within the Bremen AfD, which had reached 6.1 percent in 2019. She had not been admitted to the election this year.
Green losses
According to the projections, the Greens and their top candidate, Transport Senator Maike Schaefer, are recording significant losses. They are therefore around twelve percent, after 2019 17.4 percent of those entitled to vote had voted for them.
The Left Party under Economics Senator Kristina Vogt apparently achieved a similar result to 2019; According to the projections, it is a good ten percent. In the last election, the left had 11.3 percent of the vote.
Back in second place: CDU top candidate Frank Imhoff
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Image: dpa
Bremen had been governed for the past four years by a tripartite alliance of SPD, Greens and Left. Before the election on Sunday, Bovenschulte had expressly left open whether he would continue this coalition in the event of an election victory or switch to an alliance with the CDU. SPD General Secretary Kühnert said: “We are simply delighted that we have received a government contract in a federal state that is not one of the richest.”
Top candidate Bovenschulte himself said on Sunday evening: “For us, of course, it’s about bearing a social democratic signature. But we know that we cannot govern alone, but with which coalition we can do it best.”
The top candidate of the Greens, Maike Schäfer, says on ARD: “It’s a disappointing and bitter result.” She referred to the successful work in the red-green-red alliance in recent years.
Green Party leader Omid Nouripour commented on the Green Party’s poor result: “We didn’t give any tailwind from Berlin either.” It was a “day of humility” for the Green Party. “We are ready to continue taking responsibility because we believe that it is good for Bremen and Bremerhaven.”
The FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr said despite the losses for the FDP: “I think the FDP in Bremen has focused on the content that people were interested in.”
The AfD was not allowed to vote this year. Stephan Brandner, deputy federal spokesman for the AfD, said: “Sorry to the citizens. Next time we’ll be there again and then it’ll be in double digits.”
Jan Timke, the top candidate of the citizens in anger, said on ZDF: “We have done good work in the city council for years. So the voters know what they are getting.” And further: “I believe that many voters come from the CDU who are not satisfied with their left-wing course.” And further: “We now know from the first surveys that 50 percent of the voters came from the AFD, but 50 percent didn’t come from the AFD and I think that’s the much more interesting number.” Andreas Bovenschulte said: “The result of the citizens in anger gives cause for concern.”
462,000 eligible voters
Incidentally, it will probably take longer than in other federal states before the official election results are available. Since 2011, voters in Bremen have been allowed to bundle (cumulate) or distribute (mix) five votes on lists or candidates. This voting system results in a lengthy count. The state returning authority therefore only publishes an official extrapolation for the citizens on the evening of the election Sunday, based on 95 voting districts. Parallel to the citizenship, the city parliaments and local advisory councils were also elected in the smallest German federal state with around 680,000 inhabitants.
About 462,000 citizens were entitled to vote for the citizenship. Voter turnout was around 57 percent, according to initial reports. In 2019 it was 64.1 percent; At that time, the citizens were simultaneously called upon to elect the European Parliament.
