One of the rituals of an election day is that the top candidates cast their votes in public. It is a slightly solemn and at the same time somewhat strange custom. Because despite the booth and the carefully folded ballot paper, it is actually clear who the candidate is voting for. Anything else would be almost auto-aggressive behavior.
Bettina Jarasch, the Green Party’s mayoral candidate, and Kai Wegner from the CDU had already cast their votes early in the morning. Franziska Giffey, Governing Mayor of the SPD, came to her polling station in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district of Berlin at 12.40 p.m. In her red coat, she performed professionally as usual and waited a few more minutes at the ballot box until enough photos had been taken. “Now let’s go vote and then we’ll see,” she said when she went to the polling station. When asked what she would do now, she replied: “There’s still time. Cook a little.”
Giffey’s composure is surprising, as the 44-year-old is the one who has the most to lose that day. Because without office, a future in top politics would be questionable. It was almost tragic, since her predecessor Michael Müller, also from the SPD, is responsible for the fact that Giffey and around 2.4 million other Berliners have to vote again that day. In September 2021, the elections for the Berlin House of Representatives and the district parliaments went so wrong that the state constitutional court declared them invalid. New attempt this Sunday.
This time it will not fail because of the number of ballot papers
This time Berlin wanted to do everything right. The number of ballot boxes was doubled, so many ballot papers were printed that Berliners could probably vote again right away. In addition, the number of helpers had been increased from 34,000 to 42,000.
The day of the election passed without any difficulties worth mentioning until the afternoon. But the breakdown election of 2021 apparently disturbed many Berliners in the long term. In a survey commissioned by the Berlin newspaper just half of those surveyed were sure that there would be no problems this Sunday. The Berlin election researcher Thorsten Faas therefore warned against declaring every inconsistency as a glitch. “Every mistake should be taken seriously. It’s not about turning a blind eye,” said Faas German press agency. But you have to wait and see how the day goes and then assess the situation.
Contrary to what was feared, the renewed vote after only a year and a half did not massively prevent people from voting, at least until midday. The first figures indicated that the participation, including postal voters, was hardly two percentage points lower than in the 2016 House of Representatives elections. This date is used for comparison because the Bundestag was elected at the same time in 2021 – interest is then regularly higher than in pure state elections.
As orderly as the election was apparently this time, it remained unclear to the end who would govern Berlin. In all polls, the CDU was the clear winner of the election with around 25 percent of the votes. For the first time in 22 years, the Christian Democrats would emerge victorious from an election to the House of Representatives. The strong polarization in the hot phase of the election campaign had evidently benefited the top candidate Kai Wegner. Be it after the riots on New Year’s Eve, when the CDU asked the first names of the rioters; be it in the debate about the traffic turnaround, in which Wegner had developed into the “patron saint of motorists”.
CDU top candidate Kai Wegner casting a vote.
(Photo: Michele Tantussi/REUTERS)
Nevertheless, Wegner seems to have little chance of becoming the next governing mayor. He recently ruled out an alliance with the Greens himself, saying that their position in transport policy was too incompatible. A coalition with the Social Democrats and perhaps also the FDP is hardly considered conceivable. According to most polls, the SPD only came second this time, and in a coalition with the CDU, Franziska Giffey would have to vacate the Red City Hall. Neither she nor her party wants that.
Since then, there has been concern among the Christian Democrats that Wegner might have “victimized himself”. The day before, the former CDU mayor Eberhard Diepgen had brought a kind of toleration of the SPD into play: Giffey remains mayor, but the CDU governs with. “I rule that out,” Wegner commented on these considerations daily mirror. Shortly before, Stefan Evers, the general secretary of the Berlin CDU, had warned of an “election theft”: If Giffey simply continued to govern in the existing alliance with the Greens and the Left – despite a victory for the CDU. Evers was reminded from within his own party that this was not “election theft” but rather democratic practice.
In fact, there is much to suggest that Berlin will continue to be governed by a left-wing alliance led by Giffey. Many Berliners are dissatisfied with the work of this coalition. Apparently, the alternatives are even less convincing. It could be reassuring for political opponents that a vote will have to be held again in a good three years. Because this is now a repeat election, no new legislative period begins. The old one just keeps going.