The Berlin SPD has to elect a new state leadership and has surveyed its members for this purpose. Their decision has now been made. The duo is not due to be elected for another week.
According to the wishes of the members, Neukölln’s district mayor Martin Hikel and former state secretary Nicola Böcker-Giannini are to become the new state chairmen of the Berlin SPD. In the runoff of the member survey on the future dual leadership, they received 58.45 percent of the votes cast, as SPD state chairwoman Franziska Giffey announced after the count.
The competing team of applicants made up of SPD state vice-president Kian Niroomand and the former co-chair of the Berlin SPD women, Jana Bertels, came to 41.55 percent. In the member survey, the 18,000 Berlin Social Democrats had the opportunity to cast their vote on the state leadership in two rounds.
The state chairman Raed Saleh, who had previously served alongside Giffey and ran together with a district politician, was eliminated in the first round. Saleh is also the SPD parliamentary group leader in the state parliament. Giffey himself did not run again. The SPD has been governing Berlin since last year as a junior partner together with the CDU.
However, Hikel and Böcker-Giannini have not yet been elected. This is supposed to happen at the state party conference on May 25th. The members’ vote from the runoff election is not legally binding for the party conference. However, it is likely that the delegates will adhere to it.
Source: Stern
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