The governing traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP lost some ground compared to the overall result for 2021. This was shown on Monday night in information from the state election management after counting all electoral districts. Since only twelve constituencies were affected, there is no impact on the majority in the Bundestag.
Partial repeat elections lead to a reduction in the size of Parliament
However, the partial re-election will lead to a reduction in the size of Parliament by one seat, which was previously held by the FDP. The Bundestag will now have 735 members, including only 91 from the FDP, as the Federal Returning Officer announced that night. For the other parties, the bottom line is that the number of seats remains unchanged. In addition to the Free Democrats, the Greens also lost 0.1 percentage points in the overall result compared to 2021. The CDU and AfD each received 0.1 percentage points more – all without consequences.
In Berlin, the conservative CDU and the right-wing extremist AfD achieved gains of between one and two percentage points. There was no change in the order of the parties in the 2021 federal election. The SPD remains the strongest party in the capital with 22.2 percent (-1.2 percentage points), closely followed by the Greens with 22.0 percent (-0.3). The CDU improved to 17.2 percent (+1.3), the Left practically maintained its result from the 2021 election with 11.5 percent (+0.1). The AfD climbed to 9.4 percent (+1.0) and pushed past the liberal FDP, which fell to 8.1 percent (-0.9).
Germany-wide overall result changes only minimally
The overall Germany-wide result for 2021 changed only minimally: the FDP (11.4 percent) and the Greens (14.7 percent) each lost 0.1 percentage points. The CDU (19.0 percent) and AfD (10.4 percent) each received 0.1 percentage points more. For the SPD (25.7 percent) and the Left (4.9 percent), the federal result from 2021 did not change in the election on Sunday.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner attributed the expected growth of his CDU to the work of the state party. “This is mainly because we do good government work in Berlin,” he said on RBB television on Sunday. His party, which governs the capital together with the SPD, conducted an intensive election campaign. “We have a good mood for the CDU in the city.” His predecessor Franziska Giffey emphasized that the SPD was able to defend its position as the strongest force. Right now it’s about defending democracy, fighting poverty and securing prosperity, said Berlin’s current Senator for Economic Affairs.
Wegner: “Clear signal to the federal government”
Wegner interpreted the result as a call for Chancellor Olaf Scholz to change course. The SPD losses are a “clear signal” to the federal government. He expects “the Chancellor to break his silence on how he wants to get this country back on track.”
The repetition was ordered by the German Constitutional Court because there were sometimes chaotic conditions in numerous polling stations in the capital in 2021. As expected, turnout for the re-election was poor. Only 40.2 percent of those eligible to vote had cast their vote by 4 p.m., compared to 57 percent in 2021. If the valid votes from back then are included, voter turnout at 4 p.m. was 54.1 percent, 3.8 percentage points less than two and a half years ago. At that time, in addition to the federal election, the composition of the House of Representatives in Berlin and the district council assemblies were also voted on.
Too few ballot boxes, ballot papers were missing
In the original election, there were sometimes too few ballot boxes and missing ballot papers. As a result, some polling stations remained open long after 6 p.m. The Federal Constitutional Court therefore ordered a repeat in 455 of Berlin’s 2,256 electoral districts. All twelve Berlin federal parliamentary constituencies were affected, albeit to varying degrees. In Pankow, 85 percent of the electoral districts were affected, in Lichtenberg only 2.9 percent.
There will be no shifts in the balance of power in the German Bundestag as a result of the re-election because the majority of the governing traffic light coalition is well secured. At best, a picture of the mood in the wake of the nationwide demonstrations against right-wing extremism is possible.
Two delays in voting
The redial went almost smoothly on Sunday. According to state returning officer Stephan Bröchler, there were delays in the voting process in two cases. In a polling station in the Pankow district, a key for a locked room with the voting documents was missing. The electoral board did not receive the key from the kindergarten there. Documents were then delivered by the district, so that the restaurant opened at 8:40 a.m. with a 40-minute delay. In Kreuzberg, according to Bröchler, an electoral board was delayed due to an accident with a taxi, so that the polling station in question also started late. “This can happen with the best organization,” said the state returning officer.
The partial repetition had some peculiarities. The parties were not allowed to put forward any new candidates, the ballot paper had to look like it did in 2021. This led, for example, to the former AfD member of the Bundestag Birgit Malsack-Winkemann formally running again, who is currently in custody because she was involved in a large-scale election in December 2022 was arrested during the raid. In fact, she was able to slightly improve her result from 2021 and received 5.5 percent of the vote in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf constituency, 0.2 percentage points more than two and a half years ago. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office accuses the politician, who did not make it into the Bundestag in 2021, of membership and support of a (right-wing) terrorist organization.
