As of: February 11, 2024, 7:47 p.m
By: Andreas Schmid
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They have worked in the Bundestag for more than two years, and now several Berlin MPs could be kicked out - and replaced by new faces.
Berlin is not exactly known as a carnival stronghold.
On Carnival Sunday, the federal capital still takes on foolish traits.
Then around 550,000 Berliners will be called to vote again in the federal election.
What sounds like a joke is due to the unprecedented chaos at the 2021 ballot and a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court.
The federal election must be repeated in parts in Berlin.
455 of Berlin's 2,256 electoral districts are affected.
This corresponds to 0.91 percent of all results from the federal election.
That means: The updated Berlin result doesn't really change much.
However, six members of the Bundestag could lose their mandate and be replaced by new faces - including those who do not live in Berlin and could move up due to the complicated electoral system.
Berlin repeat election: Problem district of Pankow makes the Greens and SPD tremble
Most voting errors occurred in the Pankow district.
The results from 181 of Pankow's 215 polling stations are invalid.
In 2021, Green politician Stephan Gelbhaar secured the constituency.
He got 25.5 percent of the first votes and thus ended up ahead of the SPD politician Klaus Mindrup, who was already represented in the Bundestag from 2013 to 2021.
If Mindrup were to enter the Bundestag via a direct mandate instead of Gelbhaar, another SPD member would have to leave the Bundestag so that the share of all SPD votes in the Bundestag remains correctly distributed.
This would affect Ana-Maria Trasnea, who was the last person to enter the Bundestag via the Berlin state list.
There could also be changes in the Greens.
There, Gelbhaar is in second place on the state list.
This means he is protected even in the event of defeat.
If he loses his direct mandate, Nina Stahr will have to go.
The same applies elsewhere to CDU politician Ottilie Klein.
She will be thrown out of the Bundestag if the former CDU Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters loses her mandate in Reinickendorf.
Grütters himself is protected via the state list, as is the former Berlin mayor Michael Müller (SPD), who could lose first place in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf.
If the voting result in the Berlin election changes, they are at risk: Ana-Maria Trasnea (SPD, left) and Nina Stahr (Greens).
© picture alliance/dpa |
Melissa Erichsen//IMAGO / Political Moments (Collage)
Federal election in Berlin: These representatives could lose their mandate
But there could also be shifts beyond the borders of Berlin.
If a party gets fewer votes in Berlin than in 2021, the seat could be lost entirely or at least go to another state list.
Voter turnout is also crucial here.
The fewer votes are counted in Berlin, the fewer places there are in the capital.
As a result, the Hessian left-wing politician Christine Buchholz (in the Bundestag from 2009-21) could displace the Berlin MP Pascal Meisner or the Saxon AfD politician Jens Meier could displace Götz Frömming, who is running in Pankow.
FDP man Lars Lindemann could be replaced by NRW colleague Fabian Griewel, SPD politician Trasnea by her Lower Saxony party friend Angela Hohmann, a local politician from Celle.
Successor to the Bundestag?
“It’s a travesty that such mishaps can even happen.”
Hohmann is in 28th place on the SPD Lower Saxony list.
“I wouldn’t have expected this place on the list to ever come into play,” she says in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA.
The appointment to the Bundestag would come as a surprise to her.
“That was never my goal, I am a local politician through and through.” Nevertheless, she would “of course” accept the mandate.
“Out of responsibility to the voters and to my party.”
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FDP politician Griewel would also accept the mandate.
“But I would very much like Mr. Lindemann to keep his mandate.” Griewel himself said in an interview with our editorial team about the errors in the 2021 federal election: “It is a farce that such mishaps can even happen in a country like Germany .”
Stephan Bröchler, state returning officer for Berlin, examines a ballot paper at the start of postal voting for the partial repeat election.
© Jens Kalaene/dpa
Meanwhile, the left can breathe a sigh of relief.
She missed the five percent hurdle in the 2021 federal election and was only allowed to enter the Bundestag thanks to three direct mandates she won.
The Left got two of them in Berlin.
The districts of Gregor Gysi (Treptow-Köpenick) and Gesine Lötzsch (Lichtenberg) are hardly affected by voting errors.
Your renewed mandate win is therefore considered certain.
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