Election in Berlin: One wins, three want to rule

The voters spoke a clear language: In the re-election for the House of Representatives in Berlin, the CDU’s top candidate Kai Wegner won by a wide margin. Depending on the extrapolation, the 50-year-old is up to ten percent ahead of his competitors from the SPD and the Greens: incumbent Franziska Giffey (SPD) and Green candidate Bettina Jarasch are both currently around 18 percent compared to the almost 28 percent of Wegner’s CDU .

Consequently, he claims the formation of a government for himself. But he is not alone in that, both Jarasch and Giffey have hopes for the Red City Hall. Their reasoning: Only those who get a majority together can govern. And the deselected government coalition would still have that: the SPD, the Greens and the Left together make up the majority of the deputies in the Berlin Senate.

So it is that the two losers are speculating on leading the next government. Of course only under her direction. Bettina Jarasch, for example, says she would prefer to continue the previous cooperation “under the leadership of the Greens”.

Wegner, Giffey, Jarasch all want to govern in Berlin

The incumbent mayor Franziska Giffey, who just gave her party the worst election result in the history of Berlin, is similarly bold. Nevertheless, on election night she did not rule out wanting to become the strongest force in a new state government.

If the three now governing parties agree, whether under the leadership of the SPD or the Greens, they could continue. Whether that corresponds to the will of the voters is another question.

The CDU can then do nothing. Their deputy federal chairman Casten Linnemann already seems to fear that. “If you gain ten percentage points and this government has been properly dismissed – that’s almost a one-off event – there is a clear election winner,” he said on Sunday. “The population also expects that this election winner now has the government mandate.”