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On the day after the general election, many of the winners try to find their role in Berlin. Others have already found theirs, including losers posing as winners.
Berlin, September 27, 2021. Update: 2:31 p.m. CEST (The Berlin Spectator) – In Germany, quite a few candidates have to organize the move to Berlin, apart from those who already live here. Michael Müller belongs to the latter category. His job is the Governing Mayor of Berlin, but not for much longer. The 56-year-old politician from the Tempelhof district was recently overthrown by his own party, the center-left SPD. So he looked for a new job and got it.
Easy movement
In the constituency of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Müller ran for the Bundestag and won. He was able to beat his conservative opponent Klaus-Dieter Gröhler with 27.9 vs. 22.3 percent of the vote. Michael Müller becomes a member of parliament. Until there is a new governing mayor, he will continue to run the Red City Hall. In his case, moving to Berlin will be easy because the German capital is the city he has ruled for seven years. Does all of this make Müller a winner or a loser? It seems to be a bit of both.
His successor Franziska Giffey, who won the state election in Berlin despite a plagiarism scandal that forced her to resign from her position as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, does not have to worry about a change either. In a few weeks she will be Berlin’s first female mayor. Immediately after the Second World War, from 1947 to 1948, Louise Schroeder was acting mayor for a few months, but that is different.
People and trees
Mrs. Giffey is not a newbie. She used to be the district mayor of Neukölln, a very diverse district of the German capital that is full of culture, but also problems. That makes her a Berlin expert. She also used the campaign to get back to the topic and speak to absolutely everyone, including people on the street and probably every single tree in the city’s numerous parks.
Armin Laschet is a loser who sells himself a winner. With him as a candidate, his center-right CDU and its Bavarian version, the CSU, achieved a catastrophic result of 24.1 percent. A year earlier, polls had seen the Conservatives at 38 percent. Laschet managed to become a candidate for chancellor, although many of his own people did not want him. The election result is the bill for that stunt he drew.
Looking for a successor
However, the same Armin Laschet says he wants to form a government coalition for Germany. This plan may look crazy at first because it lost. On the other hand, one of the likely kingmakers, the center-right Economic FDP, wants to work with him, so the plan could actually be implemented. Laschet was at the top of the CDU candidate list in North Rhine-Westphalia. Now he has to take care of shipping his things to Berlin. In Düsseldorf, his colleagues have to find a new First Minister. The 60-year-old conservative gives up this job. But he’s not out of danger. Some in his own party are calling for his resignation.
Everyone has a new mission, it seems. Angela Merkel wants to lead a normal life and bake cakes for her husband when her long reign finally comes to an end. This may (or may not) happen before this year ends. The Greens Annalena Baerbock and Christian Lindner from the FDP, who are both winners, so to speak, are the likely kingmakers. On the other hand, if they make it too complicated, the SPD and conservatives could form a new grand coalition. However, this scenario is not too likely, as the CDU and CSU apparently do not want to become a junior partner.
Biggest winner
One thing is certain: almost everyone will move to Berlin. There are 735 MPs in the bloated Bundestag. Many of them are new.
The biggest winner of all is Manuela Schwesig, the Social Democratic First Minister up there in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. She got 39.6 percent. Such a result was achieved a few decades ago by large tent parties at the federal level.
Do you want more losers? Let’s go: One of them is Annalena Baerbock, who lost to Olaf Scholz in her constituency in Potsdam. Merkel’s Chancellery Minister Helge Braun lost his district in Giessen. In Angela Merkel’s ex-Vorpommern-Rügen district, Anna Kassautzki, a young SPD candidate, won.
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