Election victories in MV and Berlin

Also on the stage in the Willy-Brandt-Haus was the other strong woman of the SPD: Franziska Giffey, who is now Berlin’s first governing mayor. The 43-year-old had to show strong nerves on the evening of the election after the Social Democrats were still behind the Greens in the first ARD forecast. But in the end the SPD received 21.4 percent of the vote.

With that she got her worst result since 1946, but was ahead of the Greens with 18.9 percent. “We would like to get as much of the SPD program as possible in the coalition negotiations,” said Giffey, who resigned as Federal Family Minister in May against her doctoral thesis because of ongoing allegations of plagiarism.

In the meantime, the Free University of Berlin has withdrawn her doctorate for “deceiving the independence of her academic performance”. The Berlin voters, however, apparently hardly interested.

And so Giffey and Schwesig are now the focus as the power comrades. Schwesig is fit again after her cancer. She clearly feels at home in her role as mother of the country. With her campaign slogan “The woman for MV” she won over the voters on the coast.

Especially in the case of Corona crisis management, the graduate financial economist recently gained nationwide attention again. Some advances were controversial, such as their idea to seal off Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for families who wanted to go on vacation in the state. But overall, she was able to give the impression that someone was sitting in Schwerin who stood up to the Chancellor in the pandemic.

Schwesig turned her image 180 degrees

With this, Schwesig achieved the feat, which is almost impossible in politics, of turning its image by 180 degrees. Ten years ago, CDU politician Lorenz Caffier mocked her as a “coastal barbie”. She even had to put up with similar suggestions from her own party. Caffier was later her interior minister and had to resign in 2020 after buying a gun from a dealer who was a member of the right-wing extremist group Nordkreuz.

Today, people in the CDU in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania speak reverently of the “ice queen”. And in her own party, Schwesig is now referred to as the “last guy in the SPD”.

Ultimately, Schwesig achieved a rapid ascent within the party. She was Germany’s youngest state minister, which she immediately marketed as a signal to the younger generation. Finally, she became Federal Minister for Family Affairs in 2013. The partnership bonus for parental allowance, the law on the quota of women on supervisory boards and the Remuneration Transparency Act date from this time.

In 2017 Schwesig returned to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to take over from Prime Minister Sellering, who retired due to illness. Most recently, the Prime Minister, who was born in Frankfurt an der Oder, came under pressure because of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea. The project is harshly criticized as a “climate-political fall from man” and a billion-dollar grave.

Schwesig, however, was undeterred and always emphasized that he was behind the gas project, which was important for Germany’s energy supply and also for jobs in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. But not all see their dominance as positive. Schwesig does not tolerate anyone by his side, he keeps others in the party down, so we can hear.

Giffey gives her project catchy titles

Franziska Giffey can now move into the Red Town Hall. In the capital, she benefited from her fame as a former federal minister and mayor of the Berlin district of Neukölln. Many associate her with a direct and uncomplicated way. So she always insisted on giving her projects catchy titles, such as “Good day care law” or “Strong family law”.

In the election campaign, the graduate in administrative management clearly distinguished herself from the previous red-red-green Senate – and thus also from her party friend, the governing mayor Michael Müller. The political opponent even described their behavior as “pure CDU”. She always affirmed how important the economy was to her, she wanted to promote the expansion of city highways and she declared expropriations to be the “red line”.

Giffey stuck to this on the Monday after the election. In a referendum on Sunday, the Berliners voted 56 percent in favor of calling on the Senate to initiate all measures that are necessary for the transfer of real estate into common ownership. Giffey was reluctant: The referendum should be respected, but “if that is not constitutional, then we cannot do it either”.

Already logical candidates for the party chairmanship in 2019

With their electoral victories, Schwesig and Giffey are now likely to have talked about higher tasks. Both were actually the logical candidates for the party leadership of the Federal SPD in 2019. But with Schwesig, cancer got in the way. Giffey made the plagiarism affair to get her doctoral thesis done. As the first female mayor of Berlin, she could now try to make people forget that.

In the SPD, therefore, the oracle has long been that one of the two could take over the party chairmanship if party leader Saskia Esken should become federal minister, which quite a few in the party hope. In this case Schwesig would have the first access right. But after the election victory, Giffey is also one of the SPD’s first leadership reserves behind Scholz.

More: Manuela Schwesig has several coalition options for her next government.