Elections: The top candidates in the elections in Bremen

Who will lead the government in the future in the smallest federal state: will it stay with incumbent Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) or will challenger Frank Imhoff (CDU) take over? And who will then be their political partners?

SPD: Andreas Bovenschulte (57) has been the mayor and president of the Senate in the smallest federal state for four years. After an SPD election defeat in 2019, he left the coalition negotiations with the Greens and Left Party to his predecessor Carsten Sieling. Then the then mayor of the neighboring municipality of Weyhe in Lower Saxony seized the top post in Bremen. The doctor of law, born in Hildesheim in 1965, was also chairman of the SPD in Bremen from 2010 to 2013; he is considered a party leftist. Bovenschulte has been playing the guitar since his youth, he has made rock music and quotes suitable song titles for every situation in life. The politician, who is about two meters tall and nicknamed Bovi, is the father of two adult daughters.

CDU: Frank Imhoff (54) is an exception in the Hanseatic city with its tradition of seafarers and merchants. He is a trained farmer and is the fifth generation to run a farm with his family in the rural district of Strom. Despite his political appointments, he insists on going to the cowshed in the mornings and evenings. Imhoff is married and has three adult children. He has been a member of the Bremen Parliament since 1999. He was Vice President there and in 2019 became the first representative of the CDU to take over the office of President. Imhoff advocates a CDU as a modern big city party that takes care of education, integration and climate protection.

Greens: Maike Schaefer (51) was parliamentary group leader in the citizenship until 2019. Then she fulfilled her dream of government. The doctor of biology took over the major department for climate protection, environment, mobility, urban development and housing construction. At the same time she became deputy for Mayor Bovenschulte. One success was negotiating the Germany ticket as the country’s chief negotiator. In Bremen, their cycle path and road traffic experiments caused resentment. In turn, the senator did not get ahead quickly enough for the Greens and the environmental groups. Schaefer comes from Schwalmstadt in Hesse, is married, has a daughter and keeps bees as a hobby.

Left Party: Kristina Vogt (57) is her party’s top candidate for the fourth time. She was the parliamentary group leader in the citizenship, and in 2019 the paralegal managed to move to the Senate. As Senator for Economics, Labor and Europe, Vogt surprised everyone who expected a skeptical course. She got on well with companies and the Chamber of Commerce and was committed to Bremen’s aerospace and food industries. Business was less sympathetic to the red-green-red training levy. Vogt, mother of a grown son, is considered down-to-earth; in the past she ran a pub.

FDP: Thore Schäck (38) leads the Bremen Liberals for the first time in an election campaign. He was born in Delmenhorst, studied in Bremen and Bayreuth and runs his own start-up company. In economic policy, too, he is counting on a boost in company start-ups in Bremen. At the beginning of his political career, Schäck was briefly a member of the SPD. He then switched to the FDP and quickly made a career there. In 2019 he moved into the state parliament as chairman of the Young Liberals in Bremen. In 2020 he took over the position of state chairman from Hauke ​​Hilz.

Citizens in anger: Piet Leidreiter (58) leads the list of the right-wing populist voter group Bürger in Wut (BiW) for the city of Bremen; for Bremerhaven it is its founder Jan Timke (52). Leidreiter sees himself as a value conservative, for whom the CDU has moved too far to the left. In the federal AfD he was treasurer, belonged to the euro-critical wing. When extremist-nationalist forces grew stronger there, he left in 2015. Born in Bremen, he has been a member of BiW since 2017. From 2015 to 2019 he was a member of the citizenship. Leidreiter runs his family’s tax consultancy office in Bremen. His daughter is also running for BiW.