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Lasse Petersdotter with Aminata Touré and Ricarda Lang at an election event: direct mandate for the Greens
Photo: IMAGO/Petra Nowack / IMAGO/penofoto
In the last state elections in Schleswig-Holstein, the SPD secured direct mandates in the state capital, Kiel.
This year, however, the constituencies of Kiel-Nord and Kiel-West will go to the Greens.
In Kiel-Nord, Green candidate Lasse Petersdotter got 32.4 percent of the first votes.
In Kiel-West, Anna Langsch got 31.8 percent of the first votes.
Kiel-Nord is the constituency of former Prime Minister Torsten Albig, who ran there as a direct candidate in the 2017 election.
After the crushing defeat of his party, Albig withdrew from politics, although he had won the direct mandate in Kiel.
His successor this year was SPD candidate Benjamin Walczak.
This received only 19.2 of the first votes.
He is still far behind the CDU direct candidate Tobias von der Heide, who received 28.6 percent of the first votes.
The picture is similar in the Kiel-West constituency: In 2017, the SPD candidate Özlem Ünsal was still ahead with 36.5 percent of the first votes.
This year, the candidate received only 20.3 percent of the first votes - and thus ended up in third place behind Langsch from the Greens (31.8 percent) and CDU candidate Kristina Herbst (26.5 percent).
In the Lübeck-South constituency, which the SPD won in 2017, it looks like the direct Green candidate will win: shortly before all votes were counted, Jasper Balke was well ahead of Anette Röttger from the CDU and SPD candidate Sandra Odendahl.
SPD behind the Greens in second votes across the country
In the state elections, the Greens ousted the SPD from second place behind the CDU in the second vote result.
According to current projections, the Greens come to almost 18 percent, the SPD is behind with only 16 percent.
Many blame the low profile of top candidate Thomas Losse-Müller, who has only recently joined the SPD, for the losses.
After the clear victory of the CDU in the state elections, Prime Minister Daniel Günther must now decide whether he would rather govern with the Greens or the FDP.
While the FDP lost some votes in the country, the Greens were able to gain significantly.
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