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Bundestag election will be partially repeated in Berlin
549,549 Berliners were called to vote instead of the last 2.47 million. photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
After many mishaps in 2021, the federal election will be repeated in Berlin – at least partially. The rump vote on reparations marks the start of an important election year.
The 2021 federal election was in Berlin marked by mishaps and organizational problems – now comes the compensation: Tomorrow, Sunday, the election will be partially repeated.
According to a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in December, new elections will be held in 455 of 2,256 electoral districts and the associated postal voting districts, i.e. around a fifth. 549,549 Berliners were called to vote instead of the last 2.47 million.
The vote marks the start of an important election year in Germany: the European elections are on June 9th, and state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg in September.
Almost 1 percent have to vote again
The election in the capital will not change the majority in the Bundestag, the majority of the traffic lights. The proportion of those eligible to vote in Berlin compared to the total number at the federal level is only 0.9 percent. However, small shifts are possible. Some MPs could lose their seats in the Bundestag, others could move into parliament. Berlin currently has 29 of the 736 members of the Bundestag.
On September 26, 2021, Berlin botched both the federal election and the elections to the House of Representatives and the district parliaments in an unprecedented way. Long queues in front of polling stations, missing or incorrect ballot papers, a temporary interruption in voting in some places – the list of problems was long. Some voters cast their votes well after 6 p.m., when forecasts and projections had already been published. Other people refrained from exercising their right to vote because of the chaos.
First redial in history
Against this background, the Berlin Constitutional Court ordered that the elections to the state parliament and the district council assemblies be completely repeated. That happened a year ago on February 12, 2023. Organizationally everything went smoothly, the political consequence was a change of government from red-green-red to black-red. In contrast to the Berlin judges, their colleagues in Karlsruhe did not consider such an approach necessary with regard to the federal election. They only declared the ballot partially invalid. Nevertheless, this is the first repeat election in history ordered by the Federal Constitutional Court.
Voting is now taking place in all twelve Berlin federal parliamentary constituencies, although to very different degrees. In Pankow, 85 percent of the polling districts are affected, in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf 42 percent. In contrast, it is only 2.9 percent in Lichtenberg, 3.4 percent in Treptow-Köpenick and 6 percent in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. It is therefore clear that in some constituencies there cannot be any mathematical changes. Given this starting point, some fear that voter turnout will be low. In the 2021 federal election in Berlin as a whole, it was 75.2 percent.
Things could be particularly exciting in the constituencies of Pankow, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Tempelhof-Schöneberg and Reinickendorf. In 2021, the green politician Stefan Gelbhaar, the then Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD), SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert and ex-Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters (CDU) won direct mandates that could now be shaky. However, all four politicians have good list positions – so they will definitely remain in the Bundestag.
AfD candidate is in custody
In general, with the partial repetition, the same applicants have to run as in 2021. This means that former AfD member of the Bundestag Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, for example, is up for election. However, she is in custody after being arrested in a large-scale raid at the end of 2022. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office accuses her of membership and support of a (right-wing) terrorist organization.
In the 2021 federal election in Berlin, the SPD was ahead with 23.4 percent of the second votes, followed by the Greens (22.4), CDU (15.9), Left (11.4), FDP (9.1) and AfD ( 8.4). Of the 12 direct mandates up for grabs in the capital, the SPD won 4, the Greens and CDU won 3 each and the Left won 2. A further 17 Berlin politicians were elected via the party lists, making a total of 29: the SPD and the Greens each have 7, CDU 5, Left 4, FDP and AfD each have 3 members in the Bundestag.