German Coalition Punished in Repeat of 2021 Election in Berlin

Iain Rogers
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- The three parties in Germany’s unpopular ruling coalition suffered losses in Sunday’s partial repeat in Berlin of the 2021 federal election, continuing a national trend that is likely to be repeated in four key votes this year.

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Germany’s highest court last year ordered a rerun of the ballot in about a fifth of the capital’s electoral districts due to irregularities in the voting process.

According to preliminary results early Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and his Greens and Free Democrat partners lost ground compared with 2021, while the conservative Christian Democrats and far-right Alternative for Germany gained.

The balance of power in the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, was not affected, although Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s Free Democrats lost one of their 92 seats.

Scholz’s government has seen its national poll ratings plummet to record lows in recent months, with the main opposition conservative CDU/CSU and the AfD rising to first and second place respectively.

Lindner and his FDP are under particular pressure as support for the pro-business party has dropped to 4% in most polls. That puts it in danger of missing the 5% threshold for getting into parliament at the next general election due in the fall of 2025.

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The ruling coalition is expected to remain in power until then but it’s likely to be punished by voters in both June’s European Parliament elections and three regional ballots in September in eastern Germany, where the anti-immigrant AfD is the most popular party.

In the 2021 general election, many people stood in line for hours in Berlin and some polling stations remained open long after television broadcasters began running projections of the result.

Missing or incorrect voting papers caused delays and the Berlin marathon was held the same day, hampering movement around the city.

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