This was not how they had imagined Sunday evening in Berlin.

Not the voters, many of whom stand in front of the polling stations until late in the evening, because a series of mishaps in the implementation of the election caused a series of delays.

And neither are the two top candidates from the SPD and the Greens.

Already in the afternoon it became clear that one of the two should become the next governing mayor.

Just which ones, comrade and previous favorite Franziska Giffey or Green Bettina Jarasch?

The race is much closer than the polls had recently suggested, and for supporters of both parties it is a rollercoaster of emotions.

Tobias Schrörs

Political Editor.

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Loud cheers can be heard at the Green Party at 6 p.m.: The ARD's forecast for the election to the House of Representatives sees the party at 23.5 percent, two percentage points ahead of the SPD.

At the party of the Social Democrats you can see long faces when this forecast runs across the screen: a brief applause of decency.

That's it.

There is only one real cheer, namely when the surprisingly poor result of the AfD emerges.

After it had moved into the House of Representatives five years ago during the refugee crisis with a good 14 percent, it has now more than halved its result.

"We are not finished yet"

A young comrade can only think of one word about the first prognoses for the SPD: “Terrifying.” At just before seven, Giffey appears in front of her party friends. She is confident that the numbers will change in the course of the count: “It's close this evening, but we're not finished yet.” She encourages the comrades: “Let us be confident.” 6 pm -The ZDF forecast sees the SPD just ahead with 23 percent, the Greens with one percentage point less behind. Some SPD members feel a little consoled by the prospect that their party could also govern if Giffey only came second: According to the first forecasts, a coalition of the Greens and the SPD would be possible. The first projections see sometimes the SPD, sometimes the Greens in front. At 9:20 p.m. the SPD is ahead of the Greens with 22.7 percent,which come to 21.4 percent. Together that would be just too little for a two-party alliance.

Giffey had become the favorite for the office of governing mayor in the past few weeks.

It hadn't looked like it for a long time.

For months it was bobbed at 15 percent in surveys.

A circumstance that was also due to her plagiarism affair, which had made her departure from federal politics inevitable.

The way for her candidacy in Berlin was clear after her party friend and incumbent Michael Müller announced that he would not run again.

The Berliners were not immediately overwhelmed by the idea of ​​being Giffey's consolation prize, so to speak, and of putting their trust in a politician who had just gambled it away elsewhere.