Hannover has elected a new Lord Mayor: The Green Belit Onay won the runoff election. The member of parliament prevailed with 52.9 percent against the CDU candidate and former VW manager Eckhard Scholz, who came to 47.1 percent of the vote.
Hannover is thus the fourth big city after Freiburg, Darmstadt and Stuttgart, in which a Grüner moves up to become Lord Mayor. The Turkish-born Onay is nationwide the first Lord Mayor with a migration background in a state capital.
At the same time, for the first time in more than 70 years, the SPD is no longer the mayor of Lower Saxony's capital. The Social Democrat Marc Hansmann had landed in the first round of the election in late October in third place.
The former SPD Mayor Stefan Schostok had resigned after an indictment for "serious infidelity" in April and had announced new elections. The allegation against him: Schostok's office manager Frank Herbert is said to have received since 2015 unlawful extra payments in addition to his salary - with the knowledge and support of his boss. He denies the allegations.