According to forecasts, the SPD has lost its decades of supremacy in North German Bremen. Yesterday, for the first time in the history of the federal state, the CDU was the strongest force in the state election, as prognoses by Infratest Dimap for the ARD and the research group elections for ZDF showed. According to the information, Grüne and Linke were able to gain a clear share.
According to the ARD forecast, the Christian Democrats around their top candidate Carsten Meyer-Heder clearly put up 25.5 percent of the vote, the ZDF forecast went from 26.5 percent. On the other hand, the mayor Carsten Sieling’s Social Democrats are only getting 24.5 percent for both broadcasters – a drop of 8.3 percentage points compared to 2015.
„That’s striking distance“
„This is far from a result,“ commented Sieling the forecasts. The Bremen SPD leader Sascha Aulepp said that the Social Democrats had retracted in the Hanseatic city, although the worst result of their history, this is still „volatile“. With regard to the distance to the CDU she added: „That’s strike distance.“
According to forecasts, the Greens are improving to 18 percent (ARD) or 18.5 percent (ZDF), while the Left is increasing to 12 percent. The FDP reaches six percent. For the AfD, the ARD forecast is seven percent, at ZDF it is only five percent. The local right-wing populist party Citizens in Anger (BIW) reaches 2.5 percent (ZDF) to 2.8 percent (ARD).
Voter turnout much higher
For the 84-seat Bremen citizenship means that the CDU can expect 23 to 25 seats. For the SPD there are 22 to 23, for the Greens 17 and for the left ten to eleven. The FDP is expected to send five to six MPs, the AFD five to six.
Sieling preceded a Grand Coalition. Possible tri-level constellations would be according to the forecasts red-red-green, red-yellow-green and black-yellow-green. Voter turnout apparently was much higher than four years ago. The ZDF forecast showed 62 percent, the ARD even 66 percent. Four years ago, only 50.2 percent of Bremen citizens had participated in the state election.
