Small Bremen, big effect: The Greens get a bad result in the election. Habeck’s best man affair and the heating chaos leave their mark.
Bremen – Severe dampener for a successful party: After years of soaring, the Greens have suffered a painful defeat. In the Bremen election 2023 the party on the Weser experienced a crash and lost almost five percentage points. The bad result could even threaten the loss of government participation – similar to what happened in Berlin a few weeks ago.
Bremen election: Habeck’s heating plan and best man affair thwart the green result
The party is seething. Because the best man affair and the chaos surrounding the heating plans Robert Habeck were not helpful in the Bremen election. How is the party reacting? And what does that mean for the traffic light? An analysis.
In the first reactions, the Greens avoided mutual blame directly after the Bremen election. Above all, Bremen’s Greens lead candidate, Maike Schaefer, admitted to her own mistakes given the poor election results. Apparently she didn’t manage to convey the content and successes with her party in the election campaign, said the still incumbent transport minister on ARD and did not completely rule out resigning.
“I know my responsibility as a top candidate,” she said, adding. “I think I’ve shown over the past four years that I can make bold decisions, and I’m not afraid to take responsibility.”
Result of the Bremen election: Greens fall by five percent – crash behind the left
The first figures had previously become known. After 17.6 percent (2019), the Greens fell to 12 percent in the Bremen election, according to extrapolation – and were even behind the left, who made it to 12.1 percent. Clear election winner this evening: Andreas Bovenschulte with his SPD, which got 29.2 percent and thus referred the CDU around challenger Frank Imhoff to second place (25.6 percent). The right-wing populist party Bürger in Wut received 9.3 percent of the vote, the FDP 5.2 percent. For the Election winner Bovenschulte is now faced with three government options – even without the Greens, who had co-governed in Bremen in the past legislative period.
“The Result in the Bremen election It’s disappointing,” said the party’s co-chairman, Riccarda Lang, on Sunday evening on the Phoenix television station. The Greens in Bremen would have achieved a lot in terms of content. However, it was not possible to sufficiently communicate this to the voters. Lang admitted that there was “little tailwind” from the federal level in the two-city country. The result of the Bremen election is still well below the national trend. “There were many topics that were country-specific, which shaped the debate there and where we unfortunately, to be honest, didn’t manage to spread it widely.”
Debate about Habeck: Graichen affair and heating plans gave the Greens a poll crash
For weeks, things have been anything but smooth for the Greens. Even before the Bremen election, the polls for the party plummeted. Above all, the debates about the policy of Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck are increasingly causing problems for the Greens. His heating plans, which envisage the mandatory replacement of old oil and gas heating systems with new, climate-friendly systems, are highly controversial within his own traffic light coalition and among the population.
Then there was the so-called best man affair. After it became known that his State Secretary Patrick Graichen, as part of a large eco-lobby network, was involved in the selection process for filling the position of managing director at the German Energy Agency (dena), although one of the candidates was his best man, Habeck had to leave the Bundestag to answer questions.
Bremen election 2023: Greens collect the receipt because of Habeck’s Graichen affair
The economics minister backed his state secretary in the Graichen affair and consistently rejected calls for his resignation. But he couldn’t really calm things down on the matter. The polls kept going downhill.
Many Greens already feared that the chaos in the Bremen elections could pay the price. So far the party has held together. In the best man affair, the federal and faction leaders were behind Habeck and sensed a targeted campaign, partly from their own coalition ranks. Because after the FDP had recently suffered a series of electoral defeats, the Liberals around Finance Minister Christian Lindner announced that they wanted to sharpen their profile in the federal government. And that means for the FDP: at the expense of the Greens.
How are the Greens reacting? Are Habeck’s people now making more attacks on the FDP?
For months, the Free Democrats have repeatedly teased their coalition partner. Lindner never wanted to hand out money for environmental projects, instead repeatedly campaigned for the extended lifespan of nuclear power plants. After a multi-day coalition committee, Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) then pushed through the expansion of 144 motorway projects – also thanks to the support of the SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
But how long will the Greens play along? It is conceivable that, after two poor results in state elections, they will also tighten the tone in the coalition. In the left camp in particular, a now-first-right feeling could arise after the Bremen election. That’s one possibility. The other: The poll crash and the performance of the Bremen elections causes the Realo camp to change course towards a more moderate climate policy. The debate will certainly take place in the coming days.
Does party leader Omid Nouripour already suspect it? In any case, he was quite contrite on Sunday evening on ARD. The whole result, he grumbled, was anything but “as desired”. He knows that he, as chairman, will have to moderate a lot in the coming days. (jkf)
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