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Birgit Malsack-Winkemann (in the Bundestag in November 2019)
Photo:
Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
Former Bundestag member Birgit Malsack-Winkemann is in custody on suspicion of terrorism as a suspected part of a “Reichsbürger” group. Nevertheless, she was able to record a minimal increase in her share of the vote in the partial repeat of the federal election.
According to the state election authorities, Malsack-Winkemann received 5.5 percent of the first votes in her Steglitz-Zehlendorf constituency on Sunday. That is 0.2 percentage points more than in the original federal election around two and a half years ago. The fact that she can be elected at all is due to the electoral system: the parties are not allowed to put forward any new candidates in a repeat election. Accordingly, Malsack-Winkemann will be back on the ballot from custody, as he was in 2021.
She received a total of 9,277 votes in the partial repeat election. The result is made up of the repeat election votes cast on Sunday and those from the original election on September 26, 2021 in electoral districts with still valid results. At that time, Malsack-Winkemann was not returned to the Bundestag.
Growth for the AfD
In December 2022, like numerous other suspects, she was arrested in a major raid. The Federal Prosecutor's Office accuses her of membership and support of a right-wing terrorist organization. She has admitted some of the allegations, but denies that the group has a terrorist aim.
The AfD as a party also made slight gains in Steglitz-Zehlendorf. She received 10,036 second votes. This corresponds to 5.9 percent and is also an increase of 0.2 percentage points. CDU politician Thomas Heilmann once again won the direct mandate for the constituency. In the overall result of the first votes, it increased by 0.6 points to 28.6 percent compared to 2021, as can be seen from the state election authority's website.
mrc/dpa