Monday, September 27, 2021
For the first time in 30 years
Merkel’s ex-constituency goes to SPD politician
“It’s bitter”: The CDU suffered another bitter defeat on this election evening in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Angela Merkel’s direct mandate in the previous Bundestag constituency will also be lost – to the SPD. The Union is left with a historically poor election result.
In the previous constituency of the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel, the CDU in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania suffered a bitter defeat in the federal election. For the first time in more than 30 years, the direct mandate in constituency 15 did not go to the Christian Democrats.
Instead, the 27-year-old Anna Kassautzki from the SPD moves into the Bundestag with 24.3 percent of the first votes for the constituency of Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I. Merkel’s successor as a CDU direct candidate, the 33-year-old tax auditor Georg Günther, landed in second place with 20.4 percent. He was just ahead of Leif-Erik Holm from the AfD (19.9 percent).
The CDU lost 23.6 percentage points in the first vote in constituency 15 compared to the previous federal election. “It’s bitter,” commented Günther on the result. In the last week before the election, he and Merkel toured extensively through the constituency. He did not blame himself for his election campaign, said Günther. The state elections also broadcast the results of the federal elections in his constituency.
The SPD clearly won the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while the CDU fell to a historic low. SPD candidate Kassautzki said: “I feel incredibly honored.” The SPD was able to improve its result in the first votes in the constituency compared to the 2017 federal election by 12.7 percentage points. “It was a team effort that we brought,” said Kassautzki, who works at the University of Greifswald.
The outgoing Chancellor has won the directorship of the Bundestag eight times in a row in constituency 15 since 1990. In 2017, Merkel got 44 percent of the first votes – she was well ahead of the second-placed AfD candidate Leif-Erik Holm with 19.3 percent. In 2013, the Chancellor won even more clearly with 56.2 percent of the first votes.