Former Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey is the new Governing Mayor of Berlin.

The 43-year-old SPD politician received 84 out of 139 votes in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, 52 MPs voted against her and two abstained.

The coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the Left has a total of 92 members.

Giffey replaces her party friend Michael Müller, who moved to the Bundestag after seven years in the Red City Hall.

After her election, the former Federal Minister for Family Affairs was sworn in.

Then she wanted to take over the official business in the town hall and appoint the ten senators.

Then these should be sworn in in the House of Representatives.

In addition to the head of government, the SPD has four senators, the Greens and the Left three each.

With seven women and four men, the Senate is more feminine than ever.

The government team wants to meet for their first meeting in the early evening.

Second woman to head the city

The SPD, the Greens and the Left have been ruling Berlin together since 2016, but new faces predominate in the new Senate.

The coalition agreement for the next five years was presented on November 29th.

Subsequently, party congresses of the SPD and the Greens approved with a large majority, while the left said “yes” to a membership decision.

Berlin is now getting a ruling mayor for the first time - and for the first time since reunification a city head from the GDR.

However, Giffey is not the first woman to run the city.

Because in 1947/1948 the SPD politician Louise Schroeder officiated provisionally as Lord Mayor of post-war Berlin.

Giffey already has a steep political career behind him.

Within a few years she rose from the education councilor in Berlin's Neukölln district to the office of district mayor to federal family minister.

In May she resigned as minister in the wake of a plagiarism affair that cost her a doctorate.

As the top candidate in the House of Representatives election, Giffey achieved the historically worst result for the Berlin Social Democrats with 21.4 percent.

At the same time, however, she secured the SPD's election victory over the Greens, CDU, Left, AfD and FDP.