Partial repetition of the federal election in Berlin: Giffey demands consequences for the SPD

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Franziska Giffey at an SPD election campaign event

Photo: Soeren Stache / dpa

Berlin's SPD state chairwoman Franziska Giffey is calling for a higher profile for her party in the traffic light coalition. The SPD has taken on a very state-supporting mediating role in the federal government between the partners FDP and the Greens, Giffey told the dpa news agency. Now the SPD must stand stronger for its social democratic position again. "That means that the dissatisfaction that exists among the population must be taken up again more strongly," said Giffey.

With her statements, the former governing mayor reacts to her party's losses in the partial repeat of the federal election in Berlin. The traffic light parties SPD and FDP noticeably lost votes, while the opposition parties CDU and AfD gained. The Greens and the Left were able to roughly defend their results from 2021. Voter turnout was low, with only around 51 percent of eligible voters voting.

The strong performance of the AfD and the low voter turnout in the partial election on Sunday are warning signs. “Part of our DNA as the SPD is the fight against the right, the clear commitment to democracy,” said Giffey. "That's also what has brought people back to us in the last few weeks." The SPD must continue to stand up for this.

The fact that the traffic light parties lost in the partial repeat election “has to be taken very seriously,” said Giffey. What is also serious is that due to the low voter turnout, Berlin is only represented in the Bundestag with 25 instead of the previous 29 seats. "Many people didn't realize that if they didn't go, that could mean that Berlin would actually lose votes in the Bundestag, and that's what has now happened," said Giffey. "And of course that's very, very unfortunate overall."

The 2021 federal election was repeated on Sunday in around a fifth of the electoral districts due to organizational breakdowns at the time. Giffey recognized that the SPD, as the governing party in 2021, bore responsibility for the problems at that time. "All I can say is that it shouldn't have happened," said Giffey. “We take responsibility and we bear the consequences.”

Giffey ran as the top candidate in the 2021 election for the Berlin House of Representatives, which was held at the same time, and then temporarily took over the office of Governing Mayor from her SPD predecessor Michael Müller. After the SPD was defeated in the repeat election to the House of Representatives a year ago, she gave up her position as head of government and is now Senator for Economic Affairs in a black-red coalition under the governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU).

mgo/dpa