2020 Local Election in Bavaria: Are the Greens the Big Losers?

Preliminary projections of the local elections in Bavaria make it clear that the election was anything but successful for the Greens. Only a green OB candidate made it into the run-off elections.

• In the local elections in Bavaria * there is probably one big loser : The Greens did not make it into the runoff election in any large city.
• After the Greens did well in the European and state elections, today's election slump is a surprise .
• It remains to be seen whether the Greens will take any consequences.
• By the way: We send you the most important stories from your Merkur.de * region once a week in our free, local newsletter. Register and receive all information about the election on Monday morning at 6 a.m.

Munich - "The green wave is broken " - said CSU general secretary Markus Blume after the results of the mayoral elections in the local elections in Bavaria were largely known on Sunday evening. And he is probably right, because the election record of the environmental protection party is bitter: only in one of the ten largest Bavarian cities did a Greens candidate even make it into the runoff .

Local election 2020 in Bavaria: Green candidate fails in Munich

Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) may be challenged by his CSU competitor Kristina Frank . Green OB candidate Katrin Habenschaden came to 20.5 percent according to the preliminary calculations and thus missed the entry into the run-off election relatively narrowly. It was only 0.8 percent behind Frank, who came in second with 21.3 percent of the vote. Reiter is confident in the run-off vote * and with 48 percent of the votes in the first round of voting has every reason.

Bad damage was a good loser. On the evening of the election, she congratulated her competitors Reiter and Frank on their entry into the runoff election. "In Munich there was a head-to-head race with green participation for the first time," she said. Of course it was a shame to have just missed the runoff. "But compared to the last election, we have clearly gained," said the Green politician.

By the way: You can read the latest developments in local elections in Munich * in our news ticker.

The second round of elections in Nuremberg will be all the more exciting, but for the Greens it was already on Sunday. According to preliminary results, Greens candidate Verena Osgyan was only 12.8 percent in the first round of elections. A head-to-head race is likely to begin between Marcus König (CSU, 36.8 percent) and Thorsten Brehm (SPD, 35.6 percent).

2020 local elections in Bavaria: Even with the OB election in Augsburg no success for the Greens

And Martina Wild , Greens OB candidate in Augsburg , also had to give up her competitor in the race for second place after an exciting election thriller. SPD politician Dirk Wurm moves into the runoff election with 18.8 percent, while Wild narrowly missed them with only 0.3 percent behind Wurm . CSU candidate Eva Weber is currently number one in Augsburg. In Regensburg , Greens OB candidate Stefan Christoph is also not in front. The two top places are occupied by Astrid Freudenstein (CSU) and Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer (SPD).

And this pattern also continues in the other major Bavarian cities: Neither in Ingolstadt, nor in Würzburg, Fürth or Erlangen , a green player is run for the runoff . The only exception was initially the ninth largest city in Bavaria: In Bamberg , Jonas Glüsenkamp runs 24.6 percent in the runoff election against incumbent Andreas Starke (SPD, 35.9 percent), reports the Franconian portal nordbayern.de . In Bayreuth , however, the Greens' OB-election bankruptcy continued: There, too, no Greens made it into the runoff election.

So far it can only be speculated about the reasons for the failure of the Greens . Environmental problems , which are known to be the focus of the Greens, may take a back seat for many in the face of the acute corona crisis . Concerns about climate change may have been superseded in the past few days by concerns about one's own job or the economic stability of the Federal Republic, and perhaps that is why some voters prefer to put their crosses with another party.

Local elections 2020 in Bavaria: Markus Söder comments on the election of the Greens

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder could not help commenting on the largely poor performance of the Greens in the OB election . "A few weeks ago it was said that the Greens will march through the elections everywhere," he said in the BR . Now the trend for the Greens is rather uncomfortable. At least in some city councils, the Greens showed better results * on election evening. Still, the environmentalist party is arguably the big loser of the evening. Nevertheless, the Bavarian Greens thanked the Landesverband's Twitter account for " every vote for green " and the commitment of the numerous election workers.

That was a choice in exceptional circumstances - time to say thank you. Thank you to all election workers for your so important service to our democracy. Thanks for every vote for green. And thanks to all of our candidates & supporters. #weilwirhierleben pic.twitter.com/K22qpybFWJ

Also interesting: You can also read the overall results of the local elections in Bavaria at a glance at Merkur.de *.

* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.