The SPD won the election in Bremen. The CDU lies loud ARD prognosis in second place. The Greens lose significantly, but remain third party. The BIW achieve a record result and are level with the left. According to the forecast, the FDP comes to 5.5 percent.
The SPD emerges as the strongest political force from the state elections in Bremen. According to the forecast by infratest dimap, the Social Democrats around top candidate Andreas Bovenschulte will get 29.5 percent. In their historically poor result in 2019, it was 24.9 percent.
Bovenschulte is probably one of the main reasons for the success. The popular mayor went into the election with good approval ratings. His work is valued across all parties. With this office bonus, the SPD, which relied heavily on its top candidate in the election campaign, is back in first place in Bremen. In 2019, for the first time in 73 years, the SPD did not become the strongest force in Bremen, but the CDU. The government then formed the SPD, the Greens and the Left, a constellation unique in West Germany.
“We are number one in Bremen,” said Bovenschulte after the forecast was announced. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert said: “We are extremely proud of the SPD in Bremen and Bremerhaven.” He sees the success of the SPD as a result of the strong personal bonus, for which there is no need to be ashamed. In the ARD he said that Bovenschulte embodies what the SPD stands for. Bovenschulte had set important impulses beyond Bremen, he was “part of the social conscience” in Germany.
CDU in second place
The Christian Democrats have to settle for second place again this time. According to the forecast, they come to 25.5 percent – and thus lose slightly compared to 2019 (26.7 percent). The CDU has apparently not succeeded in positioning itself as an alternative to the ruling SPD.
Your top candidate, Frank Imhoff, remained rather pale during the election campaign. The Union apparently did not get through to the voters with the issues of education, internal security and transport. There was no noticeable tailwind from the federal party.
Andreas Jung, deputy federal chairman of the CDU, explained the result with the popularity of Bovenschulte. Nevertheless, it is a respectable result for the CDU, especially in the “SPD stronghold” Bremen, said Jung in the ARD.
Greens lose significantly
In all probability, the big losers in this election are the Greens. According to the forecast, the party comes to 12.5 percent, compared to 17.4 percent in 2019. The reasons for this are likely to lie with the top candidate Maike Schaefer. The traffic senator had comparatively low popularity ratings in surveys, even half of the Greens supporters are not satisfied with Schaefer. Overall, the Greens are viewed most critically by the three Senate parties, not least because of their transport policy.
Headwind also came from the federal government, where the party is under pressure because of the heating plans of Economics Minister Robert Habeck, but also because of the personnel disputes surrounding State Secretary Patrick Graichen. The Bremen Greens have apparently not managed to detach themselves from this negative trend.
Green party leader Omid Nouripour was disappointed with the result of the election. The result was “not what we wanted it to be,” he added. It must now be seen what the party can do better. At the same time, there is “a lack of crisis resilience” in Germany, and the necessary decisions have not been made – which he indicated that the Greens in the federal government are pursuing a policy that he believes is necessary but not always popular.
Left two digits again
The Bremen left, on the other hand, seems to be unaffected by the massive problems of the federal party. With 10.5 percent, she can again look forward to a double-digit result, but loses slightly compared to 2019.
Claudia Bernhard (health, women, consumer protection) and Kristina Vogt (economy, labor and Europe) are the current senators of the party. The left in Bremen is considered pragmatic. Her government work is widely viewed positively. The popularity of the top candidate Vogt may also have contributed to the good election result.
Party leader Martin Schirdewan sees classic left-wing issues as the reason for his party’s success. The signal from Bremen is that the left as a “justice party” still has a place in the German party landscape.
FDP has to tremble in Bremen, BIW with record results
According to the forecast, the FDP will reach 5.5 percent nationwide. It is still unclear whether she will succeed in entering the two electoral areas of Bremen and Bremerhaven, for which the five-percent hurdle applies separately. She competed with the little-known top candidate Thore Schäck and opted for a pro car driver course. In the city of Bremen, the FDP is forecast at 5 percent, in Bremerhaven at 6.5.
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr was relieved that his party was likely to return to parliament. The FDP in Bremen have focused on the content that would have interested the voters, such as transport policy and school policy. In general, the situation for the FDP in city states like Bremen is a bit more difficult.
The right-wing populist voters’ association Bürger in Wut (BIW) achieved record results. The party owes the predicted 10.5 percent in large part to the AfD electorate, who were not allowed to vote this year because they had submitted competing lists.
The BIW focused on the topics of internal security and immigration. Especially in Bremerhaven, where the party is traditionally strong, it achieved an outstanding result with 21.5 percent according to the forecast. The BIW should now be represented for the first time in parliamentary group strength in the Bremen Parliament.
Final result in a few days
The election in Bremen has some peculiarities. The five percent hurdle applies separately to the two electoral areas of Bremen and Bremerhaven. Of the 87 seats in the Bremen parliament, 72 are elected in the city of Bremen and 15 in Bremerhaven.
The approximately 463,000 eligible voters were allowed to cast up to five votes. Because of the complicated electoral system, counting is lengthy. The preliminary result is expected in a few days.
According to the forecast, voter turnout is 57 percent, which is lower than the 64.1 percent of 2019. At that time, the citizenship elections took place at the same time as the European elections.