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Malu Dreyer according to the first projections
Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa
At first in Mainz, the cheering mood did not even arise in the SPD pavilion.
When shortly after 6 p.m. the first numbers on the election result flickered on the screens in the rain-soaked inner courtyard of the House of Representatives in the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital, a small group of five comrades had gathered under a small white tent dome at the entrance to the House of Representatives, they wanted to watch the TV channels provide a few pictures of celebrating election winners.
Party Secretary General Daniel Stich and MP Martin Haller let their fists clash.
He was happy, but it would be a long election evening, said Stich.
Much more was probably not possible at this time: only a few party people were allowed into the parliamentary group rooms, which the election winners normally serve as a backdrop for exuberant cheering scenes in a cramped, confined space.
The Social Democrats had every reason to celebrate.
The first figures already showed that they have once again become the strongest party in Rhineland-Palatinate - possibly with very slight losses compared to 2016, but with a significantly larger gap to the second strongest party in the state, the CDU.
Malu Dreyer, the top candidate and head of government, appeared in front of her state chancellery just under half an hour later and beamed.
The result was "just beautiful," she said.
The red-yellow-green traffic light coalition in Mainz has been confirmed.
And this alliance, Dreyer assured me again and again that evening, she definitely wanted to continue.
The SPD had completely coordinated its election campaign with Dreyer.
"We with her," was the main campaign slogan.
As in 2016, the result was to a large extent a »Malu effect«, said SPD General Secretary Stich.
Dreyer's popularity ratings have remained almost unchanged for years, well beyond the SPD supporters.
In addition, it is also evident in Rhineland-Palatinate that it is good when the SPD appears unanimously and as a people's party is broadly based, analyzed several comrades in Dreyer's environment.
They repeatedly pointed out that the Rhineland-Palatinate SPD had succeeded in completely breaking away from the party's sobering federal trend.
The Dreyer-SPD in Rhineland-Palatinate was able to more than double the polls of the federal party, which are currently 16 to 17 percent.
Dreyer herself said she didn't believe in comparing federal and state trends.
But the result could give all social democrats a tailwind.
"I am optimistic that the result will inspire the federal party," said Dreyer.
Quite different with the CDU: The defeat was "clear," said top candidate Christian Baldauf.
A few weeks ago, the CDU was still ahead in surveys.
The party will now analyze in detail what exactly led to the defeat.
It is certain that the mask affair of the CDU did not help him.
How things will go on with him personally, whether he will retain the chairmanship of the CDU parliamentary group, that will be clarified in the next few days.
more on the subject
State election in Rhineland-Palatinate: Malu Dreyer speaks of a clear government mandate for the SPD
Election in Rhineland-Palatinate: CDU man Baldauf admits defeat
Union in crisis: It burnsA comment by Veit Medick
For Baldauf, the result is bitter because, at well below 30 percent, it is well below that of his predecessor Julia Klöckner, who competed against Dreyer in 2016 without success.
Soon, however, started under extremely difficult conditions.
A few weeks before the election, the 53-year-old lawyer was still completely unknown to a large number of voters.
And the chances of attracting attention in the election campaign were slim.
Classic events in halls and on marketplaces had to be canceled almost without exception due to the pandemic.
He was unable to counter the “omnipresence” of the Prime Minister, which was constantly appearing in the media during the Corona crisis.
With this, the Christian Democrats have once again failed to break the power of the SPD in what is actually a structurally conservative country.
The Social Democrats have been ruling in Rhineland-Palatinate for three decades now - although the Union is usually present there in other elections.
Baldauf completed his election campaign without major mistakes, but also without particularly noticeable moments.
There was no mood of change in Rhineland-Palatinate until the end.
The result of the free voters is striking.
In 2016 they were still 2.2 percent, now they made it very clearly with more than 6 percent entry into the state parliament, probably even with a stronger parliamentary group than the FDP.
The top candidate Joachim Streit, district administrator from Bitburg-Prüm in the north-west of the state, had conducted a self-confident election campaign as the »party of the middle class«.
Votes for him could have come from the CDU, possibly also out of disappointment with the mask scandal.
The top candidate Streit sees his party as a "firewall to the right." single-digit result clearly lost votes.
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