In Bremen, only one party has ever led the town hall – the SPD. This time the party in the smallest federal state is only slightly ahead. And the support for a new right-wing party is growing.
The smallest federal state of Bremen elects its state parliament, the Bremen Parliament, on Sunday. According to polls, a close race is expected – with the long-term governing party SPD slightly ahead of the CDU. This would reverse the situation again after 2019. At that time, the Christian Democrats had become the strongest force in the Hanseatic city for the first time. However, they were left out when the government was formed because the SPD, Greens and Left Party formed a coalition.
SPD mayor Andreas Bovenschulte (57) must now defend his office for the first time against CDU challenger Frank Imhoff (54). Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected in the Hanseatic city today to support Bovenschulte in the final stretch of the election campaign. The party chairmen Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil are also to speak on the market square in front of the historic Bremen town hall.
According to the election management, a good 462,000 people are allowed to take part in the vote in the two-city state with Bremen and Bremerhaven. In addition, around 33,000 EU citizens are entitled to vote in the local elections held at the same time.
AfD is not allowed to participate
A special feature of the Bremen election is that the AfD blocked participation with an internal dispute. However, the polls of the right-wing populist voters’ association Bürger in Wut (BiW) have risen. Many AfD voters now wanted to vote for BiW, analyzed the opinion research institute Forsa.
In the 2019 general election, the CDU came to 26.7 percent. The SPD fell to a previous Bremen low of 24.9 percent. The Greens came to 17.4 percent, the Left Party to 11.3 percent. The AfD reached 6.1 percent for the first time in the parliamentary group, the FDP came to 5.9 percent. The BiW also got a mandate because they cleared the five percent hurdle in the Bremerhaven electoral area.
SPD ahead in polls
In polls over the past few weeks, the SPD’s narrow lead over the CDU has solidified. Most recently, a ZDF “political barometer” on Thursday saw 29 percent approval for the party, followed by 26 percent for the CDU. The Greens would therefore come to 13 percent, the Left Party to 11. The FDP would therefore currently come to 6 and the BiW to 10 percent. In addition to the possibility of SPD-led coalitions of three, there would also be a majority for a coalition of SPD and CDU. When asked who one would rather have as head of government, SPD incumbent Bovenschulte was well ahead of CDU challenger Imhoff (23 percent) with 60 percent.
Because there was a kind of mood of change in the state of Bremen in 2019, voter turnout rose to 64.1 percent at the time. This time, a lower turnout is expected again. In 2015, 50.2 percent of Bremen residents voted.
In the election campaign, Bovenschulte primarily weighed his reputation as mayor. The CDU and FDP blamed the SPD for the poor situation in Bremen’s schools, which often lag behind in educational comparisons.
At the end of the FDP election campaign, Federal Vice Presidents Wolfgang Kubicki and Johannes Vogel are to come to Bremen on Friday evening. The Greens are expecting Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth on Saturday.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
