Martin Hikel and Nicola Böcker-Giannini won the member survey about the future state chairmanship of the Berlin SPD. In the runoff election, they prevailed with 58.45 percent of the votes cast against the duo Jana Bertels and Kian Niroomand (41.55 percent). A total of 52.46 percent of Berlin SPD members cast their votes – some from all over the world.
The favorite duo thus prevailed. In the first round of voting, Neukölln’s district mayor Hikel and the former sports state secretary Böcker-Giannini had by far the most votes and narrowly missed an absolute majority with 48.24 percent. Bertels and Niroomand received 36.11 percent of the votes in the first round.
It was a “strong member vote,” said Martin Hikel. “This result must be reflected in all future decisions, both in personnel decisions and in terms of content.” The result must now lead to practical policy. What is needed is a common offer that is supported by everyone in the party, including those who decided differently in the vote, said Hikel.
© Tsp / Christian Latz
“We have an idea of how we want to develop the party. “It’s about developing our future vision for Berlin 2035,” explained Böcker-Giannini. She announced a survey and committees from which the process for the 2026 election will be derived. “We have to be positioned accordingly and for this we need the long lines in the relevant future fields,” said Böcker-Giannini.
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“We have a very, very clear decision from the party,” said SPD state chairwoman Franziska Giffey after the results were announced. “The main task will now be to bring this distribution together into a joint 100 percent for the SPD.”
Hikel and Böcker-Giannini also see themselves as facing this task: “We will only move the party forward if we bring all parts of the SPD together,” said Hikel. “We look forward to discussions with Kian Niroomand and Jana Bertels and everyone who supports them.”
There will probably be: “We have to send a strong signal from the state party conference,” said Kian Niroomand. Hikel and Böcker-Giannini would need a lot of support from the delegates there. “We won’t be able to move forward with the party any other way.”
Point of contention: 29 euro ticket
With the 29 euro ticket, a first point of contention between the winners of the member survey and the current state chairperson emerged: “We want to question beliefs,” explained Hikel. “We will not abolish the 29 euro ticket immediately, but will monitor critically how it is accepted.”
Franziska Giffey said: “Almost 100,000 tickets have already been sold. There are promises that you have to keep sometimes. Then you can see whether it worked or not.”
Both candidate duos unanimously expressed sharp criticism of the faction leader and outgoing party chairman Raed Saleh, who wants to run for the parliamentary group chairmanship again in an early election on Tuesday. “We want an SPD from a single source. For us, this also includes the parliamentary group. We have always said that we think it is right for the group to develop further,” said Hikel. In the end, this remains the responsibility of the MPs. Nevertheless, the group must decide for itself “whether bringing forward the election of the chairman was the right decision, also in view of the member survey.”
Kian Niroomand was even clearer: “I believe that there is a great need for a new start in the Berlin SPD. This cannot be ignored in the group.”
Niroomand sharply criticized the short-term election of the group leadership. “I think bringing the date forward now is exactly the style that many in the party no longer want. The vote in the first round of voting was very clear.” At that time, Saleh ran together with Luise Lehmann and came a distant third.
Hikel and Böcker-Giannini are seen within the party as more bourgeois-conservative representatives. During their election campaign they emphasized several times that they wanted to move away from the principle of a free city for everyone. At the same time, the duo that has so far been least connected within the party committees won the vote.
After winning the member survey, Hikel and Böcker-Giannini will now run for office at the SPD party conference on Saturday a week from now on May 25th. There they will then be officially elected as the new party leaders and replace the previous party leadership around Economics Senator Franziska Giffey and parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh. The members’ vote from the runoff election is not legally binding for the party conference. However, it is considered unlikely that the delegates could override this.
It is not yet certain what the members’ vote for the SPD, which governs in Berlin as a junior partner together with the CDU, means for cooperation in the coalition.
Governing is not getting any easier, as both parties have heard. Until now, the governing mayor and CDU state leader Kai Wegner only needed to meet with SPD parliamentary group and party leader Raed Saleh at the Italian restaurant in Spandau to discuss important issues. Now Saleh no longer has the political weight he had before. In case of doubt, Wegner must also coordinate with the SPD dual leadership. This is one more loop in the political decision-making process.
But that’s not all: So far it was certain that the faction leader had the same opinion as the party leader – after all, both were Saleh. Differences in content are conceivable or even likely in the future. (with dpa)