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Badenschier in front of Holm
AfD man fails in Schwerin mayor election
06/18/2023, 8:08 p.m
He could have become the first AfD mayor of a state capital. But in the runoff, Leif-Erik Holm is defeated by the incumbent from the SPD. Previously, all other parties had campaigned to vote for Badenschier in the runoff – except for one.
In the mayoral election in Schwein, SPD incumbent Rico Badenschier clearly prevailed against AfD candidate Leif-Erik Holm: In a runoff election, Badenschier received 67.8 percent of the votes, Holm came to 32.2 percent. This was announced by the administration of the state capital of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the evening Website as a preliminary result. Voter turnout was 49.4 percent.
The 44-year-old physician Badenschier has been in charge of Schwerin’s administration since 2016. The 52-year-old former radio presenter Holm has been deputy chairman of the AfD parliamentary group since 2017. After the first ballot two weeks ago, the CDU, Greens, Left and the local voters’ alliance Independent Citizens called for Badenschier to be elected. Only the FDP did not make any recommendations.
The Schwerin SPD thanked the voters on Facebook who supported Badenschier and “showed their attitude”. Schwerin remains “cosmopolitan, diverse and democratic”. Holm also thanked his followers via Facebook, even if “in the end it wasn’t enough in the fight all against one”.
In the first ballot, Badenschier was 42.0 percent ahead of Holm, who came second with 27.4 percent and thus made it into the runoff. Four other applicants had applied for the post in the first ballot. The Lord Mayor of Schwerin is elected for a seven-year term.