Berlin election: why the »others« hope for votes (and money).

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On the road with the Volt party in the Berlin repeat election campaign.

Candidate Cara Seeberg and her team struggle to arouse interest in their flyers.

"We have to honestly say we've already voted."

"And did you choose Volt?"

"Of course we won't say that."

“You don't have to.

May I give you another flyer, but maybe you can think about it.

If things go that well again, we might do a repeat election and then you can vote for Volt.«

Irony shortly before an election in which many small parties feel disadvantaged.

Cara Seeberg, State Chairwoman of Volt Berlin

»We have a lot less money available this year, which is simply because in 2021 we had one and nine months to prepare, were able to do a lot of fundraising and ultimately had almost 100,000 euros.

It's like this this year, or when we started collecting in 2022, we had almost two or three months to prepare and actually used our savings.

And that's 30,000 euros.«

A problem that also exists for the big parties, but is more manageable: Everyone had to quickly set up and pay for an unplanned election campaign.

It was only in November last year that the Berlin constitutional court overturned the 2021 breakdown election.

Carsten Koschmieder, party researcher FU Berlin

»One could assume that it is not easy for small parties with a smaller budget and fewer staff to organize the election campaign at short notice.

That they aren't prepared to take vacations either, didn't plan it.

And so forth.

It's not easy for the small parties, but it's not easy for the big parties either.

And the small parties in Berlin can possibly benefit from the fact that there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the way Berlin is governed, that they can't even get the elections right and that they can't get many other things right."

Aida Spiegeler Castañeda from the Animal Welfare Party would like to convince these potentially dissatisfied people in the last few meters of the election campaign.

The party did not purchase any new posters for the repeat election campaign – it is recycling the old ones.

According to the party, the budget of the animal protection party has shrunk to around a quarter of 2021, and not all of the 30 to 50 volunteers in Berlin were able to take as much time as they would with a planned election.

And so Spiegeler Castañeda relies on new strategies.

Aida Spiegeler Castañeda, Federal Chairman of the Animal Welfare Party

»Due to the fact that the weather conditions are not good, far fewer people are out and about who would be reached through street campaigns.

A lot of people are more likely to be online.

This means that we are also trying more and more to focus on social media and to reach people there.

With our topics, with our program.«

In the House of Representatives elections in September 2021, the Animal Welfare Party performed best of all 28 small parties that did not make it into Parliament, with 2.2 percent.

Around 40,000 Berliners voted for her.

Taken together, the "others" received 12.5 percent of the second votes, an increase of 3.3 percentage points compared to the 2016 parliamentary election.

Carsten Koschmieder, party researcher at the FU Berlin

»In Berlin, the smallest parties have traditionally done very well and, for example, the Pirate Party made its way into parliament for the first time in Berlin;

the others, as they are called in the election polls, are stronger in Berlin than in other federal states, and have always been traditional.

And that's why, from the point of view of the others, the small parties, it is of course justified to hope that they might just get into parliament in the next election, or at least do better."

The animal protection party has not yet made it into the House of Representatives, but is represented in several district parliaments.

However, many voters are fundamentally difficult to convince to vote for a small party like Spiegeler Castañeda's.

The 28-year-old business lawyer often hears that she is worried about giving away her voice, but she objects.

Aida Spiegeler Castañeda, Animal Welfare Party

»If smaller parties now get more and more votes, as we saw in the last election in 2021, that of course also puts pressure on the big parties.

And especially when we, the animal welfare party, have a strong result, then that is also a reason for the Greens or the Left, for example, to question their own program.

Why is a small party suddenly getting so many votes?

Is it because of us?

Is this because of our program?

And by questioning that and then perhaps actually approaching your own program more consistently, a lot has already been gained.«

For small parties like Volt and the Animal Welfare Party, there is something else that is at stake in addition to the distant goal of the five percent hurdle: state party funding.

In addition to membership fees and donations, this is an important source of income for the parties in Germany.

Around 200 million euros are currently distributed each year.

The two major parties, SPD and CDU, have been able to collect more than half of the funds for themselves in the past few years, around 56 million (SPD) and 51 million euros (CDU) in 2021.

How much each party gets depends on the one hand on their election results and on the other hand on the amount of donations to them.

And there is one hurdle: the parties must have at least 0.5 percent of the second votes in the Bundestag and European elections, and at least 1 percent in state elections.

Then there is money for every vote cast for them;

in 2021, for example, the Free Voters received around 2.3 million euros, the Animal Welfare Party around 1.3 million euros, and Volt 460,000 euros from the state.

Carsten Koschmieder, party researcher FU Berlin

»In Germany there is a rule: parties should not be dependent on the state.

That is why they are not allowed to receive more money from state party funding than they generate themselves, for example through membership fees.

And that's where the small and smallest parties in particular have the problem that if they are successful in elections, they don't get the money paid out at all, because of course they have very few members, only receive very few donations, no large donations at all and that's why they don't generate their own income and then their state funds are cut."

Back at Volt in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg.

The pro-European party got 1.1 percent in the 2021 House of Representatives elections, so it just barely cleared the hurdle for state subsidies.

For the candidate Cara Seeberg a success on which one wanted to build.

But the 27-year-old political advisor also knows that if the result should deteriorate because of the financially and personnel-difficult election campaign, the young party is threatened with a major setback.

Cara Seeberg, Volt Berlin

»I mean, it's almost €900 a month and that's calculated over three, almost three years.

It's several thousand euros.

For us it makes a big difference whether this money is in our party treasury or not.

For example, we can use this to pay someone who makes social media graphics for us.

We can pay someone to plan social media appearances for us.

Buying banal things like banners, flyers, any pavement signs, these are all things that are unfortunately not so easy for us.

And that's a shame.«

The repeat election on February 12 is both a challenge and an opportunity for the small parties – this time they were unable to carry out an election campaign like the big ones.

But they hope that the traditionally adventurous Berlin voters will help them to achieve a surprise success.