The May 13 Election in Bremen
By Prof. Dr. Dr. Karl-Rudolf Korte

The state elections or Landtagswahlen in Bremen on May 13 were the focus of both the political and media worlds in Germany. This was not because of the only 490,000 eligible voters in Bremen, but rather because Bremen will be the only state election in 2007. In addition - and this is of major importance - Bremen has always been a political testing ground.  It was here that the Greens first captured a seat in a German state parliament, even before a unified party represented on the federal level had been formed. The far-right Deutsche Volks Union (DVU) also celebrated its first victory at the polls in Bremen, long before its success in the state governments of East Germany. Bremen also saw the first so-called 'Traffic Light Coalition' (SPD - red, FDP - yellow, and the Greens) come to power and has been governed by a SPD-CDU Grand Coalition for the past twelve years - a record term for a grand coalition. Once again Bremen became the political microcosm and set the trend on May 13, 2007:

• The Greens celebrated their greatest success in party history (16.4 percent);
• Die Linke (a recent alliance between the PDS - the GDR's SED - and the WASG, a labor union oriented spin-off of the Western SPD) entered a west-German Landtag for the first time with 8.4 percent of the vote.

Overall it was a victory for the SPD (36.8 percent with a 5.5 percent loss). The CDU reached its worst outcome in twenty years with 25.7 percent (a loss of 4.1 percent) of the vote. With respect to this result, the SPD under Jens Böhrnsen will continue to govern and has the choice of coalition partners between the CDU and Greens. Current developments indicate that a renewal of the Red-Green Coalition will occur. Such a result would be the Greens' first participation in a state government since their exit from the state government in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in 2005. They are therefore likely to pay any price in the upcoming coalition negotiations for a position of such high political value.

What changes will the elections in Bremen bring about for German party competition? State elections are usually over-interpreted as they are hyped up to be the main indicator for politics on the federal level. However, they are useful indicators for judging the political climate, as well as for strategic calculations by party headquarters. The coordinates of German party-politics have moved to the left - a claim supported by the Bremen elections.  While voters may have temporarily lost their orientation in the political sphere, they have not lost their political compass. When questioned, voters are most often able to pinpoint the direction of a political issue to the left or right. The renewed renaissance of social issues has spurred rhetoric of a class struggle among the SPD concerning the issue of minimum wage, albeit without visible resonance. With regard to the 'Cannibalizing' of the political spectrum on the left, this is where Die Linke, the SPD, and the Greens can be found, the SPD is taking a somewhat offended and defiant lead. Instead of working to redefine the leftist profile on a value, capability and reality basis, the SPD in Berlin continues its course in the political center and pursues political ecumenism in the Grand Coalition. The minimum-wage campaign in Bremen appeared to be only an obligatory one. The CDU is reacting to the renaissance of social issues by demanding attention for modern and metropolitan social concerns like education and family policy - issues considered less important during the times of the previous Red-Green coalition. In Bremen, the CDU ran a campaign offering a gentle alternative with soft themes. Once again the Christian Democrats tripped and stumbled in their mission to hit the right note in providing an answer to how to govern socially responsibly.. The CDU front runner in Bremen, who for many years had scored on domestic security issues, did not appear authentic in his propagation of social value issues. Therefore, Bremen remained an experiment of party competition in need of reworking.

In contrast, though, popular leadership and decision-making styles have undergone a process of strategic calculation. Political parties can perceive themselves as lucky if they are able to present candidates of the global-minded, 'Mayor Type' sort. These are caretakers of provident presidential geniality that go about problem solving with farsighted expert knowledge. Figures of such capacity guide citizens through the political scene in a ideal typical way, as it is a fact that insecure voters do not vote for insecure politicians. Looking at the almost unambiguous election outcome in Paris, such conclusions almost appear to be part of a globalization trend.

Professor Dr. Dr. Karl-Rudolf Korte is Professor of political science at the University of Duisburg-Essen and is a former DAAD/AICGS Research Fellow.

This essay was translated by Constantin Sprengel.  For a version of this essay in German, please click here.

This essay appeared in the May 25, 2007, AICGS Advisor.