Prime Minister Boris Rhein’s CDU won the state elections in Hesse by a clear margin. According to the official provisional final result, the Christian Democrats won 7.6 percent and 34.6 percent of the vote. The AfD gained more than five points and came in second with 18.4 percent.
The SPD (15.1%) and the Greens (14.8%) lose significantly. The FDP narrowly re-entered the Hessian state parliament with exactly 5 percentage points. The Left (3.1), on the other hand, will not be represented in parliament again in the next legislature. Free Voters (3.5) lose their first entry into state parliament.
With this greatly improved result, CDU Prime Minister Boris Rhein remains Prime Minister in Hesse. Voters chose the Hessian CDU and therefore “style and stability, but also gentle renewal”, he said on election night in Wiesbaden. “We will form a government from the center of this society, from the center of the country.”
Rhein can certainly choose his partner: although his party has governed Hesse with the Greens since 2014, the winner of the elections wants to offer exploratory talks to “all democratic factions”, as the group’s leader, Ines Claus, put it. Regarding the ARD, Rhein said he would seek talks with both the Greens and the SPD.
CDU has many options in Hesse
In addition to the black-green coalition currently in power, a black-red alliance also has a majority. In terms of content, the conservatives are closer to the SPD in many aspects than to the Greens, for example when it comes to internal security. Furthermore, after 25 years in opposition, it is unlikely that the Social Democrats will negotiate too hard to finally return to government.
However, the SPD is not particularly strengthened for possible coalition negotiations. In fact, she was hoping for a celebrity bonus for front-runner Nancy Faeser during the election campaign. However, the opposite happened: the Federal Minister of the Interior did not bring a breath of fresh air to Hesse, but rather problems with migration policy and the case surrounding the dismissal of the former President of the Federal Office for Information Security, Arne Schönbohm . Her popularity ratings dropped and she was never even remotely dangerous to Rhein in the polls. It is now questionable whether Faeser will continue to be Federal Minister of the Interior in Berlin despite the poor performance in Hesse.
Reactions to the elections in Hesse
On election night, Faeser called the result “very disappointing” for his party. There were many headwinds and the SPD was unable to resolve its problems in the election campaign, she said in a speech. “Let’s spend tonight together.” Faeser left his future as head of the Hessian Social Democrats open. When asked whether she would remain chairman of the Hessian SPD, she said on ZDF: “We will see that in the coming days and weeks.”
“Mrs Faeser has been punished,” CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann said on ZDF. “She has lost credibility.” The country is going through a migration crisis in which it is necessary to finally take action and Faeser is responsible as Minister of the Interior. Instead, she campaigned in Hesse.
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, however, says he sees no reason for Faeser to resign as Federal Minister of the Interior. The people of Hesse would have cast a state political vote. The result was bitter, but “this result says nothing about the balance sheet of Federal Interior Minister Faeser,” he said on ZDF. However, given the loss of votes in the three traffic light parties, the election also sends a message to Berlin.
Green Party leader Omid Nouripour also said on ARD that his party would naturally have wanted a stronger result and that the traffic light parties would have to closely analyze the result. The AfD’s good results are “shocking” and all parties should do something to regain voters’ trust. Leading Green candidate Al-Wazir congratulated Rhein and looked forward to further cooperation. He sees no willingness for change in Hesse.