Not long ago, Hessen was considered a political laboratory. In polls for the federal election, Armin Laschet was ahead, everything seemed possible in the capital, and so the journalists in 2021 bent over the Wiesbaden state parliament, where the CDU and the Greens govern together. “Hesse as a model for Berlin?” asked not only Deutschlandfunk.
A few months later, on the evening of the general election, the Union was not the strongest force and the Greens were not strong enough. Since then, the traffic light in Berlin has been its own political laboratory.
And in Wiesbaden?
On October 8, the Hessians will elect a new state parliament, and right now it doesn’t look like they’re in the mood for experiments – at least not in the state chancellery. The CDU is 32 percent, the Greens 22 percent, the SPD 20 percent. On the other hand, there are still four months until the election, and other coalitions are also possible in Wiesbaden.
Hessen was first considered a political laboratory in 1985, when the SPD and the Greens came together to form a coalition, the first of its kind at state level. Joschka Fischer was sworn in at the time in sneakers. Almost three years later, the coalition was so divided – including over nuclear facilities – that it broke up. The CDU won the following election.
The CDU at all. She has governed the country since 1999, first with Roland Koch, then with Volker Bouffier, who handed over the office to Boris Rhein last year.
After announcing his resignation in February 2022, Volker Bouffier (right) introduces his successor, Boris Rhein, who was still designated at the time.
(Photo: Arne Dedert/dpa)
Since then, Rhein has opened folk festivals, presented medals of merit, made himself known between Kassel and Darmstadt, known in a country where few people are likely to remember his career: Minister of the Interior from 2010 to 2014, Minister of Science from 2014 to 2019, most recently President of the State Parliament. The fact that his CDU is ten percentage points ahead in polls is not only due to his lively shaking of hands, but also to the good national trend. But how reliable is it?
Would like to replace Rhein: Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).
(Photo: Andreas Arnold/dpa)
His challenger Nancy Faeser (SPD) has another problem in the next few months. She wants to remain interior minister during the election campaign and only return to Wiesbaden if she wins the election. The more united the members have to campaign for them, the more resolutely they have to make it credible that their top candidate is also interested in their homeland 580 kilometers away. Wasn’t she a member of the state parliament for 18 years? Despite this dilemma, it was also undisputed in the SPD because the party, after all these years in the opposition, has no one else with its reputation. And awareness can be crucial in an election campaign.
He no longer just wants to be a junior partner either: Green Tarek Al-Wazir with a pair of sneakers that he was given as a gift when he was selected as the top candidate.
(Photo: Thomas Frey/dpa)
The election is also crucial for the Greens, who have been co-governing in Wiesbaden since 2014 and would now like to move into the state chancellery themselves. Only: It doesn’t look like that at the moment. For the top candidate Tarek Al-Wazir, it will therefore depend on several things. Can the Greens break away from their coalition partner? Are they united behind Al-Wazir? He had expected a lot from the base in recent years, for example with his approval of the expansion of Frankfurt Airport. He says of himself that he is “not the Kreuzberg type, but rather the semi-detached house model”. And last but not least: How is the national trend developing?
Four months before the state elections in Hesse, it is too early to say how they will probably turn out. How experimental people vote, how experimental parties probe. The current coalition has recently been at odds with one another, most recently when Manfred Pentz, Secretary General of the Hessian CDU, complained on Twitter about Robert Habeck’s “heating hammer”, whereupon a member of parliament for the Greens accused him of spreading lies, that is a “pathetic level”. It is easy to forget that other coalitions are also possible in Hesse.