On the day of the European elections, local elections are also taking place in Germany: in 8 of the 16 federal states, district councils, local leaders and mayors are being newly elected. Observers are talking about a political mood test in districts and municipalities. Who is voting for what, where and when?
Parallel to the European elections, millions of Germans were able to exercise their right to vote at the local political level this Sunday: the local elections in eight federal states are about the appointment of new local representatives at the level of cities, counties and districts. In addition, a whole series of mayoral posts are being reassigned. In Thuringia, run-off elections were also held two weeks after the first round of the local elections on May 26.
Voting took place in Baden-Württemberg as well as in Brandenburg, Saxony, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Saxony-Anhalt. In the local elections in eight federal states, no clear, consistent trend emerged the day after the election.
The AfD came away empty-handed in the runoff elections for district administrator positions in Thuringia. In none of the nine districts in which AfD candidates reached the second round of voting did they manage to win.
In the runoff election in the southern Thuringian district of Hildburghausen, right-wing extremist Tommy Frenck received 30.5 percent of the vote after all 127 voting districts had been counted, while Free Voters candidate Sven Gregor received 69.5 percent.
Gregor thus achieved a clear victory – but at the same time, in the run-off election in the Hildburghausen district, almost one in three voters voted for the right-wing extremist Frenck. Frenck became known nationwide because he had even run for election despite openly displaying his views.
The AfD emerged as the clear winner in the local elections in Brandenburg. According to the preliminary final results, the AfD received 25.7 percent of the votes in the district councils and city councils of the independent cities nationwide. According to the results published by the state election officer, the CDU received 19.3 percent, the SPD was the third strongest force with 16.6 percent, followed by the Left with 7.8 percent and the Greens with 6.7 percent.
Compared to the 2019 local elections, the AfD was able to gain a significant 9.8 percentage points, making it the strongest force in a local election in Brandenburg for the first time. The CDU gained one percentage point. The biggest losers were the Left Party, with a loss of 6.3 percent. The Greens lost 4.4 percentage points, the SPD 1.1 percentage points. The FDP gained 3.2 percent, 1.8 percentage points less than in 2019.
The election result provides plenty of material for discussion: Observers spoke of a local political mood test, especially with regard to Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg. In the three federal states mentioned in eastern Germany, state elections are scheduled for the autumn – in Saxony and Thuringia on September 1st, in Brandenburg on September 22nd.
With the results from the German regions, the political debate is likely to quickly shift from the results of the European elections to the municipal trends and shifts in the federal states.
Of far-reaching political importance at the local level are the mandates for district councils, city councils, town councils, municipal councils and local councils. This is where the policies are made that citizens feel directly in their living environment and in their everyday lives.
At the same time as the European elections, a total of around 22.5 million citizens in Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt were called upon to cast their votes for the future composition of local parliaments, district offices or town halls.
According to a SWR forecast, the Greens will have to expect losses in the three largest cities in the state in the local council elections in Baden-Württemberg. However, the losses in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Mannheim will not be as strong as in the European elections. According to the forecast, the CDU could become the strongest force in Stuttgart and Mannheim, and in Karlsruhe the Greens are likely to hold on to this position despite losses.
Review: Election in Saxony 2019
The names of the new bodies to be filled can vary from state to state. In the city state of Hamburg, for example, district assemblies were elected on the day of the European elections. However, the most populous districts there, with populations of up to around 450,000, are larger than some major cities in the rest of Germany.
Democratic feat of strength across the board
The scale of the local elections is generally enormous: in Rhineland-Palatinate alone, according to the election management, 24 district councils, 41 city councils and 2,260 municipal councils are at stake. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, six district councils and 722 municipal councils will be elected, and around 1,680 polling stations will be set up in the state.
In Baden-Württemberg – one of the three most populous federal states in Germany – voting took place on the day of the European elections in 35 districts and in around 1,100 towns and municipalities. The number of election workers is also large, with around 31,000 citizens in Brandenburg alone.
In addition to the appointments to the local parliaments, mayors were also up for election in many places. In Rhineland-Palatinate, this affects more than 2,200 municipalities, while in Brandenburg, for example, according to the state election office, 271 honorary and eight full-time mayoral posts are at stake. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, mayors are being sought in around 480 municipalities.
In Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, some district administrators or full-time mayors were also directly elected, and in Saxony, a few mayors were elected. However, there were no comprehensive mayoral or district administrator elections in any of the federal states, and in some cases there were none at all.
In Thuringia, the CDU clearly won the district and city council elections on May 26 with 27.2 percent, ahead of the AfD with 25.8 percent. Nevertheless, a lot of attention was focused on the performance of the AfD, which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt classifies as definitely right-wing extremist.
In times of increasing hostility towards local politicians and election campaigners, the ballot box is seen as an important indicator of the mood in the country – and the stability of democracy at the local level. After all, many decisions are made there that affect the everyday lives of citizens. There is a noticeable growing concern that those interested in politics are no longer getting involved out of fear.
There are already warning signs that local political offices are becoming less attractive. In Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, according to the election management, no nominations were submitted for the office of local mayor in 523 municipalities. This corresponds to 23 percent or almost a quarter. In such cases, the local council must step in and elect a mayor from its own ranks.
