portrait
In Bremen, the SPD wants to further extend the longest tenure of a party in a federal state. For this, Mayor Bovenschulte relies on his official bonus – and sometimes on his guitar.
Andreas Bovenschulte rejoices: In a survey conducted a week before the Bremen elections, respondents attributed the highest economic competence to his SPD. So far, this has traditionally been part of the core competence of the CDU. The current mayor likes to quote that. This gives him momentum for his election campaign and his efforts to show the people of Bremen their city from a different perspective.
One of the most important messages from the top candidate is that of economic growth: No other federal state had a higher rate in 2022: 5.1 percent compared to the national average of 1.8 percent according to initial estimates, taking inflation into account. Frontrunner instead of bottom among the countries. People should see that.
punk and politics
It is the first election campaign for Bremen’s mayor as a top candidate. His predecessor Carsten Sieling resigned after the SPD’s historically poor performance four years ago, and Bovenschulte took over.
The pandemic came a few months later and he quickly learned how to govern Bremen. Today he is known and is considered the sovereign father of the country – and that is what the SPD’s election campaign is based on.
And on his image as a failed rock star. Bovenschulte sings Queen songs with his guitar in front of country colleagues and raps in front of comrades and voters in the park. A little love for punk is still there, he says. In politics, however, Bovenschulte relies on factual arguments instead of shrill chords.
So he speaks calmly but emphatically about the good economic development and seems as if he wants to re-draw the image of Bremen. A strong economy, says the trained lawyer, is the basis for social cohesion and justice.
Bremen’s SPD top candidate Andreas Bovenschulte
Green steel made in Bremen
It’s part of it that Bovenschulte wants to support the aircraft and automotive industries and invest in the ports as the most important economic factor. And he keeps emphasizing the importance of converting the Bremen steelworks to green production: The plant alone emits 50 percent of the country’s CO2 emissions, which then fell away in one fell swoop.
Many industries have been waiting for green steel for a long time. If the Bremen plant doesn’t go along with this, its existence will be at stake in a few years. And 3,000 direct and another 7,000 indirect jobs were lost.
debt package or future investment?
Climate protection that secures jobs – that sounds unassailable. The steelworks then also serves as a prime example to justify the multi-billion dollar climate fund that Bremen decided under Bovenschulte at the end of March as a supplementary budget.
The opposition in the Bremen Parliament is driving the 2.5 billion euro fund up the wall. The CDU calls the plans a “debt package” because it means that Bremen will be dealing with hundreds of millions of euros in additional interest payments. But the SPD politician is convinced that there is no way around it. Bovenschulte emphasizes that Bremen can only use the exception clause of the debt brake for targeted future investments.
Bovenschulte snubs Green Senator
In such controversial debates, Bovenschulte likes to explain and is mostly level-headed. If he sees himself and his cause threatened, he can also sharply demarcate himself. Just a week before the election, he snubbed his coalition partner and mobility senator, Maike Schaefer, by publicly questioning one of her measures.
The Greens politician and her transport policy are controversial, and according to polls, the party must expect a significant loss of votes. The SPD’s top candidate doesn’t want to get sucked into this. He showed understanding for the criticism of Schaefer’s decision to abolish short-term parking. He said he would reconsider after the election.
Education wears you down in Bremen
In this election campaign, too, no one could ignore the issue of education. A lack of teachers and educators and poor performance in educational studies have worn people down. However, Bovenschulte does not consider the Bremen education system to be the fundamental problem. More than half of the children in Bremen are affected by at least one risk factor: poverty, a family with little education, a mother tongue other than German.
In the short term, Bremen wants to compensate for this with a mandatory daycare bridging year to support children before they start school. Lateral entrants should help to cushion the shortage of skilled workers. In the long term, and here the social democrat Bovenschulte comes full circle, a strong economy and good jobs should fight poverty and have a positive effect on the children.
Red-Green-Red or grand coalition?
The mayor is well-known and popular, almost 60 percent of Bremen residents would vote for him directly. According to polls, the SPD is only just ahead of the CDU. Bovenschulte is reluctant to make coalition statements: Only in negotiations after the Sunday election will it be possible to really assess who is best suited to whom.