After the election is before the election: Local elections NRW: Parties advise the result

After the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the party committees at the state and federal levels deal with the results. Despite the slight decline, the CDU clearly remained the strongest force compared to the local elections in 2020. The AfD almost tripled its result in the most populous federal state. In the nationwide election, she ended up in third place behind the SPD. The Greens had to accept considerable losses.

According to the temporary state result, the CDU achieved 33.3 percent in the city councilors of the independent cities and in the district days (2020: 34.3 percent). The SPD came to 22.1 percent (2020: 24.3 percent), as the state election manager announced on the Internet. The AfD won 14.5 percent (2020: 5.1 percent), the Greens received 13.5 percent (2020: 20.0 percent). The AfD in North Rhine -Westphalia had already overtaken the Greens in the Bundestag election in February.

The left came to 5.6 percent (2020: 3.8 percent) and the FDP to 3.7 percent (2020: 5.6 percent).

According to the state election manager, the turnout was 56.8 percent and thus well above that of 2020 (51.9 percent).

Political Berlin also looks at NRW municipal elections

Local elections have their own laws because local and regional issues are dominant. But the result in North Rhine-Westphalia was also attentively followed in political Berlin. After all, it was the first political mood test after the Bundestag election in February – and also in the most populous state.

The results there largely coincide with the nationwide survey trend of the parties. The government parties CDU/CSU and SPD lose approval in terms of the result of the federal election, while the AfD can grow.

Before the important state elections in the coming year, there will be a need for advice in the Berlin party headquarters. New state parliaments will be elected in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate and in September in Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The strengthening of the AfD in the west triggered worries with the other parties. “This result has to give us thinking, nor can let us sleep calmly,” said NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU). “Even my party who won this choice so clearly.”

Stab in many NRW major cities

In addition to the local parliaments, mayors, mayors and district councilors were also elected. In many major cities such as Aachen, Bonn, Bochum, Bielefeld, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Cologne and Münster, there will be stab elections for the mayor positions on September 28.

In the largest NRW city of Cologne there is a runoff election between the Green State Vice President Berivan Aymaz and the SPD man Torsten Burmester. In the state capital of Düsseldorf, incumbent Stephan Keller (CDU) was ahead, but has to go to the runoff election against Clara Gerlach (Greens). In Bonn, the Green Mayor Katja Dörner has to face a runoff election against the CDU candidate Guido Déus, who was ahead in the first ballot.

Three stitch elections with AfD participation

In the Ruhr area cities Gelsenkirchen, Duisburg and Hagen, AfD candidates came into the runoff election, they compete against SPD candidates (Gelsenkirchen, Duisburg) and a CDU candidate (Hagen).

In these three stitch elections, the CDU and SPD want to support themselves against the AfD candidates. This was announced by Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and SPD state party leader Sarah Philipp on election evening on WDR television. “Where the CDU is in the runoff with the AfD, for me as a social democrat is very clear, of course we support the CDU,” said Philipp. Conversely, you can expect that from the CDU. Wüst said that the CDU was set up crystal clear in the question. “If someone from the AfD is in the runoff election and someone from a democratic party, then Democrats know what to do.”

AfD: “Folk vote on the direction of our country”

AfD state chief Martin Vincentz said on Sunday evening: “The first counts clearly show it: NRW wants less” keep it up “and more AfD-much more!” The local elections are more than a pure coordination of the mayor, city councilors and district councils. It was a “referendum on the direction of our country”.

SPD: have to get out of deep

The SPD chairman Bärbel Bas and Lars Klingbeil reacted disappointed. “It is true that we couldn’t stop the downward trend,” said Duisburg -based Bas in the WDR. Nevertheless, the values ​​are not a disaster, as your party was previously predicted. “Of course we have to ask ourselves how we can get out of this low,” said Bas. The good result of the AfD must take care of all democratic parties.

Spahn: tailwind for black and red coalition

According to Union parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn, the outcome of the local elections with the victory of the CDU gives the black and red coalition in the BUND tailwind. The result is an incentive for calm pragmatic work. At the same time, Spahn warned: “The increase in the extreme right must be a wake -up call for us: poverty migration, social abuse and too often failed integration must not be taboo.”

Disappointment with the Greens

The NRW green reacted disappointed in view of the crash of their party. “In the past local elections, they have a headwind, at the moment they often have headwinds,” said the Greens state chairman Yazgülü Zeybek and Tim Achtermeyer. In 2020, the Greens had achieved their best result in a local election in North Rhine-Westphalia with 20 percent.

Almost 14 million voters entitled to vote

Around 13.7 million citizens were invited to the local elections in the most populous state. Since 1999, the CDU has regularly brought most votes nationwide in local elections in NRW.