The governing mayor has admitted defeat in the elections, but could possibly continue in office.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin has voted and there is good news and bad news. First the good: The repeat election went smoothly. Berliners didn’t have to queue for hours in front of the polling stations with their sandwiches.
By 6 p.m. all the votes had been cast and apparently there were enough ballot papers. OSCE election observers are therefore not needed for the next elections to the House of Representatives. Well, it’s at least something.
The bad news is that politically everything could stay the same. The SPD, the Greens and the Left Party have all lost votes. Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that they will form a coalition of losers for Berlin.
As early as Sunday evening, the party strategists began to explain why the huge gap to the CDU would not stand in the way of forming a government without the Christian Democrats. That is democratically legitimate. As the clear winner, the CDU may moan loudly about stealing the election – majority is majority. If the CDU cannot find a coalition partner, it remains in the opposition.
What Berlin needs, however, is a new start. You can’t do that with red-green-dark red. It is exaggerated to describe the capital as a “failed state”. But even two-thirds of Berliners were recently dissatisfied with the work of the Senate. Everyone agrees: things must not go on like this in transport policy, in integration or internal security and also in school and housing policy.
No shock waves in federal politics
The election result on Sunday evening did not trigger any shocks in federal politics. For the chancellor party SPD, the result is a low blow, but there is still hope of staying in power.
>> Read also: According to the first projection, the CDU clearly wins, the Greens and SPD are equal
The Greens are back in government in every constellation. CDU leader Friedrich Merz or his followers will talk about election theft for two more days before going on to “business as usual”. Restless days are coming to FDP leader Lindner. But the Liberals are primarily looking at the state elections in Hesse and Bavaria in October.
So it looks like Berlin will continue to argue about expropriations and “fair landlord driver’s licenses” as usual. The Greens are continuing their fight against car traffic in the city, although public transport is also paralysed. On New Year’s Eve and May 1st, everyone again analyzed at a loss where the outbreaks of violence came from. The list goes on. But by Tuesday at the latest, all of this will have been forgotten in the rest of the republic.
More: Five Surprising Facts – Why Berlin is doing better than many think