SPD politician Jung wins Leipzig mayor election

The battered SPD can at least be a big city: after the election success in Hamburg, the office of mayor in Leipzig remains in the hands of the Social Democrats. Incumbent Jung won very narrowly.

Leipzig (dpa) - The SPD politician Burkhard Jung (SPD) has won the mayor election in Leipzig. The longtime city hall chief prevailed on Sunday in the second ballot.

Jung won just under 49.1 percent ahead of the CDU applicant, Saxony's Minister of Science Sebastian Gemkow (47.6 percent), and Ute Elisabeth Gabelmann (3.3 percent). The 61-year-old Jung has been in office since 2006 and is now about to take his third term in Saxony's largest city. The executive chair in Leipzig City Hall has been occupied by the SPD for three decades.

In the first ballot on February 2, the incumbent was surprisingly 29.8 percent behind the CDU candidate Gemkow (31.6 percent). Both had clearly missed the absolute majority. Gabelmann had achieved 0.9 percent in the first ballot.

Around 470,000 voters were asked to decide on the future mayor of Germany's eighth largest city.