Marie Schäffer is surprised - by her own success. The 28-year-old sits in a café in downtown Potsdam and tries to process what happened on Sunday. "I did not expect that I would win," she admits. Schäffer has done something that no candidate of the Greens managed to do in Brandenburg: she has won a direct mandate for the state parliament. Ironically in Potsdam, the SPD stronghold, the constituency of Klara Geywitz.
The day after the election, the posters are hanging on fences against right-wing parties, tourists stroll to the Museum Barberini, a few students lie in the park in the sun. The AfD had no chance here in the constituency of Potsdam I, which included Babelsberg and Potsdam's city center. 9.4 percent took the right-wing populists - and thus landed well below the country's result. Here people live in city villas with fancy restored facades, a few super-rich, much upper middle class. No typical AfD clientele.
But so far also no typical Green voters: Since 2004, Klara Geywitz has taken in the state elections three consecutive times, the direct mandate, sometimes ahead of the competition from the left, sometimes before that of the CDU. The Green Applicants? Each knocked off in fourth place.
That has changed now. Marie Schäffer has Geywitz the electoral scanned, with only 144 votes ahead. "It was an absolute shiver to the last electoral district," says the green winner. The loser, on the other hand, is suddenly without a mandate. The timing is unfortunate: Geywitz recently announced that it would run for office with Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the SPD presidency.
Can an electoral loser go to the SPD top?
Until a few days ago she drove on her cargo bike through the city and called the constituency "one of the greenest" of Brandenburg, wanted to protect the castle gardens, build sustainable, avoid packaging waste. The SPD politician tried to win in an SPD stronghold - with rippled politics. In the end, that was not enough. Can a loser still reach the SPD top?
"It was clear that it would be damn close," says Geywitz on the phone. She is on her way from Berlin to Potsdam. The S-Bahn does not run, Geywitz is in time trouble. She too is now having many conversations with people who want to know how things are going now.
Landtag election Brandenburg 2019
Preliminary final result
Second vote result
Shares in percent
SPD
26.2
-5.7
CDU
15.6
-7.4
The left
10.7
-7.9
AFD
23.5
+11.3
green
10.8
+4.6
BVB / Free Voters
5
+2.3
FDP
4.1
+2.6
other
4.1
+0.2
allocation of seats
Total: 88
Majority: 45 seats
10
25
10
5
15
23
The left (10)
SPD (25)
Green (10)
BVB / Free Voters (5)
CDU (15)
AfD (23)
Source: Provincial Returning Officer
Results in detail
Already at the European elections, the SPD in Potsdam had sunk, won almost 18 percent of the vote, the Greens 23. Potsdam have changed a lot in recent years, says Geywitz. And the Greens are celebrating success right across the country - even if the result in the state election was below expectations. The "Fridays for Future" movement is likely to have mobilized many young voters for the Greens, and in Brandenburg were also 16 -year-old vote. The defeat was therefore perhaps not so surprising for Geywitz.
Monika Skolimowska / DPA
SPD General Secretary Klingbeil and Geywitz in the election campaign: on the way with cargo bike
The SPD politician seems composed. Of course she was sad that she would not sit in the parliament in the future. But Geywitz looks forward now: She does not think that the election outcome is a rejection of her as a possible SPD leader. It is difficult for the SPD at present everywhere to win direct mandates. And: "I've gained 2000 votes," says Geywitz - and it seems a bit defiant.
Are there two sozi doing green politics?
Ultimately, the election results proved that their course was the right one: "One reason why the Greens were so strong in the constituency was the topic of ecology." Olaf Scholz and I want to combine investment in climate protection with socially just solutions. " Scholz has meanwhile declared climate policy to be a coalition issue: if the grand coalition wants to continue to have the authority to lead the country, it needs a "big leap in climate policy," he told SPIEGEL. For his competitor Scholz finds comforting words: The result is not nice - "but it is also an incentive".
If not with their own results, Geywitz is happy with the SPD. After all, her party had made an enormous catch-up hunt that many would not have expected. Of the often predicted 17 to 26 percent. They kept the AfD at a distance and exceeded expectations - unlike the Greens.
That's another reason why Marie Schäffer does not become cocky now. Before the election, her party's top candidate, Ursula Nonnemacher, had already stated that she was ready to become prime minister. She was a long way from that.
Schäffer could not believe the green forecasts
Schäffer sits in the café with his arms crossed. Between the interview appointments, call again and again relatives to congratulate. Her parents are visiting, Schäffer actually comes from Lower Saxony. In 2010 she came to Potsdam to study. Today she works as a computer scientist for the country commissioner for data protection. For ten years she has been involved with the Greens.
Schäffer says she could not believe the good predictions before the election anyway. A year ago, the Greens had thought about whether they could spend eight percent as a target. And now they have more than doubled their votes. A victory.
Did the Greens arrive in the East? Yes, says the 28-year-old. Because they gained members in all counties. Because they almost doubled their voices. Because it was a "bigger election campaign than ever". "Voters wanted renewal."
Also in Saxony three direct mandates
And Potsdam is not the only constituency in the East in which Greens have won a direct mandate. In Saxony, the party won most of the first votes in a total of three electoral districts. The Green Party chairwoman Christin Melcher and her party friend Claudia Maicher won in Leipzig, in Dresden, Thomas Löser prevailed.
The question remains, what the Greens now make of it. Schäffer emphasizes the importance of being close to people, realistically assessing what is feasible and what is not. She wants to create affordable housing in Potsdam, driving more bike paths, a rapid coal exit. The big lines, the possible red-red-green coalition? Schäffer prefers not to comment on that.
One senses that she has yet to arrive in her new role. A role from which Klara Geywitz now says goodbye. She hopes to have an even bigger one soon.
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