Marcel Falk wanted to celebrate for a long time, regardless of whether he won his constituency in Western Pomerania for the SPD or not.

That is why he had proposed before the election that they should not meet until noon on Monday.

He then comes to Gutshof Liepen bei Anklam, in the far east of the country, not only as an election campaigner, but also as an election winner.

The party lasted until three in the morning.

With 28.2 percent, Falk won constituency 29, Vorpommern-Greifswald II, which had gone to the AfD in 2016.

“It's an inner joy when your own commitment is rewarded,” he says.

The people voted for him because they knew he was making a difference on the ground.

"And Manuela Schwesig has already pulled a lot."

Anna-Lena Ripperger

Editor in politics.

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Matthias Wyssuwa

Political correspondent for Northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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The incumbent and future Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania led her SPD to a clear election victory on Sunday. The Social Democrats got 39.6 percent of the vote. The second best result ever. The triumph is so comprehensive that the Social Democrats have suddenly risen to become the strongest force even in rural Western Pomerania. For a long time everything was black here, the CDU always got its best results here. Then the AfD competed with the CDU in the state elections in 2016 and won three direct mandates in Western Pomerania. In the years that followed, the CDU seemed to be so preoccupied with itself and the AfD that it barely noticed how the SPD passed by. Now the constituency map is colored red not only for Mecklenburg, but also for Western Pomerania.The SPD won 34 out of 36 constituencies across the country - only one went to the CDU and one to the AfD.

“I also lined up to do something about the brown soup,” says Falk. The AfD could still mobilize all those in Western Pomerania who had existential fears or who viewed the established parties with resentment. But the direct candidate of the AfD, Jens Schulze-Wiehenbrauk, remained an unknown in the state election campaign. "Nobody knows this guy."

Falk had long resisted joining a party.

In 2016 he stood in the state elections as a non-party for the Left Party.

“To saw off the CDU candidate.

He didn't do anything for the region, ”says Falk.

He seems to think that this is one of the worst omissions of politicians.

By chance he later met the Parliamentary State Secretary for Western Pomerania, Patrick Dahlemann from the SPD.

After the success of the AfD in 2016, the then Prime Minister Erwin Sellering of the SPD used it.

He is supposed to take care of the rural area and, he talks a lot with people, travels through Western Pomerania, and distributes funding notices.

And he brought Falk to the SPD: he joined in the summer of 2020 and shortly afterwards became a candidate for the state election.

"You can't fight that"

Falk has been the honorary mayor of Stolpe an der Peene, a village with only about 300 inhabitants but big goals, for years. At least that's how Falk sees it. He wants to keep Stolpe - and the region - livable for the local people and make it even more attractive for tourists. The local people, that's 37,000 eligible voters, who have different concerns than the city dwellers with their luxury claims, says Falk. Healthy food, green energy - these are legitimate concerns, but they don't just come from the supermarket or the socket. Falk thinks: Climate protection is a good thing, but only if the rural area does not have to suffer from more and more wind turbines or difficulties for farmers.

What Falk says about the political challenges in Western Pomerania does not sound much different from what the CDU candidate says in the constituency. You have to make sure that the needs of the rural population are not neglected in the end, for example with the energy supply: "With all the wind turbines here in Western Pomerania, you can no longer look out the window," he says. Matthias Manthei is not in a good mood that day, he lost. In 2016 he was elected to the state parliament as a direct candidate for constituency 29, at that time still for the AfD. But because of their increasing radicalization, he resigned from the parliamentary group and switched to the CDU. Hardly anyone was upset. He doesn't believe that the move has now harmed him. He sees himself as being driven by a trend against the Union at federal and state level.“You can't do anything about that,” he says.