Prime Minister Boris Rhein’s CDU won the state elections in Hesse by a clear margin. According to the provisional official final result, the Christian Democrats gained 7.6 percent and have 34.6 percent of the vote. The AfD gained more than five points and took second place with 18.4 percent.
The SPD (15.1 percent) and the Greens (14.8) lose significantly. The FDP narrowly re-entered the Hessian state parliament with exactly 5 percentage points. The Left (3.1), on the other hand, will not be represented in parliament again in the coming legislative period. The Free Voters (3.5) miss their first entry into the state parliament.
With this greatly improved result, CDU Prime Minister Boris Rhein remains Prime Minister in Hesse. The voters chose the Hesse CDU and thus “style and stability, but also gentle renewal,” he said on election evening in Wiesbaden. “We will form a government from the center of this society, from the center of the country.”
Rhein can certainly choose his partner: Although his party has governed Hesse with the Greens since 2014, the election winner wants to offer exploratory talks to “all democratic factions,” as group leader Ines Claus said. On ARD, Rhein said he would seek talks with both the Greens and the SPD.
CDU has many options in Hesse
In addition to the currently ruling black-green coalition, a black-red alliance also has a majority. In terms of content, the conservatives are closer to the SPD in many respects than to the Greens, for example when it comes to internal security. In addition, after 25 years in opposition, the Social Democrats are unlikely to negotiate too hard in order to finally be allowed back into government.
However, the SPD is not particularly strengthened towards possible coalition negotiations. She had actually hoped for a celebrity bonus for top candidate Nancy Faeser during the election campaign. However, the opposite was the case: The Federal Minister of the Interior did not bring a breath of fresh air to Hesse, but rather problems with migration policy and the affair surrounding the dismissal of the former President of the Federal Office for Information Security, Arne Schönbohm. Her popularity ratings fell and she was never even remotely dangerous to Rhein in the polls. It is now questionable whether Faeser will remain Federal Interior Minister in Berlin despite the weak performance in Hesse.
The reactions to the election in Hesse
On election night, Faeser called the result “very disappointing” for her party. There was a lot of headwind and the SPD did not get through to its issues in the election campaign at all, she said in a speech. “We’ll get through this evening together.” Faeser left her future as head of the Hessian Social Democrats open. When asked whether she would remain chairwoman of the Hessian SPD, she said on ZDF: “We’ll see about that in the next few days and weeks.”
“Ms Faeser was punished,” said CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann on ZDF. “She lost credibility.” The country is experiencing a migration crisis in which action must finally be taken and Faeser is responsible as Interior Minister. Instead, she campaigned in Hesse.
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, however, says he sees no reason for Faeser to resign as Federal Minister of the Interior. The people of Hesse would have cast a state political vote. The result was bitter, but “this result says nothing about the balance sheet of Federal Interior Minister Faeser,” he said on ZDF. However, given the loss of votes for all three traffic light parties, the election also sends a message to Berlin.
Green Party leader Omid Nouripour also said on ARD that his party would of course have wanted a stronger result and that the traffic light parties would have to look closely at the result. The AfD’s good results are “shocking” and all parties should do something to regain trust among voters. The green top candidate Al-Wazir congratulated Rhein and hopes for further cooperation. He sees no mood for change in Hesse.