Berlin election | Berlin's Left Party wins hands down with 32.8 percent

A student votes in the U16 election at the State Competence Center for Participation and Democracy Education. Photo: dpa/Fabian Sommer If it were up to children and young people, then the Berlin Left would win the House of Representatives election on September 20th by a landslide. From September 7th to 11th, 39,374 young residents of the city took part in the U16 election. This special vote was carried out by the State Competence Center for Participation and Democracy Education in Child and Youth Welfare.

Among children and young people, the Left received 32.8 percent of the vote, followed by the Greens with 20.9 percent. With such a result among those actually entitled to vote, a dark red-green coalition could be formed that could implement key election promises from the Left and the Greens, such as the socialization of large private housing stocks.

The previous coalition partners CDU and SPD, who performed poorly among young people, would find themselves in opposition. Governing Mayor Kai Wegner's CDU got just 8.3 percent in the U16 election, while its junior partner SPD got 11.9 percent. The AfD, which boasts in Brandenburg and elsewhere that it has the youth behind it, only came sixth in the Berlin U16 election with a comparatively pitiful 5.8 percent. The animal protection party came in well ahead of the AfD with 7.7 percent.

The district council assemblies could also be voted on in the U16 election. Here, the Left achieved an absolute majority in Neukölln with 51.3 percent and narrowly missed it in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg with 47.5 percent.

Eleven-year-old Min voted and explained: "I think it's cool that there is the U16 election because I think it's important that children's opinions are heard."

"Although in this year's election to the House of Representatives, people aged 16 and over are allowed to vote for the first time, the perspectives and concerns of young people still play too little of a role in political debates."

"Although in this year's election to the House of Representatives, people aged 16 and over are allowed to vote for the first time, the perspectives and concerns of young people still play too little of a role in political debates," regrets Scarlett Strehlow from the State Competence Center. "Children and young people are particularly affected by political decisions - and have to live with their consequences the longest." The U16 election impressively shows: "Young people can form their own political opinions and want to take responsibility. Politics and society are therefore called upon to give them more opportunities for participation.

Until now, 16 and 17 year olds in Berlin were only allowed to have a say in the composition of district council assemblies. On September 20th, for the first time in the capital, they will be able to vote for the House of Representatives for the entire city - comparable to Brandenburg, where 16 and 17 year olds have been able to take part in state elections since 2014.

Participation in the Berlin U16 election has increased significantly. In 2021, only 16,763 children and young people took part under Corona conditions. At that time it was still a U18 election, and in the end the Greens were in the lead with 25.1 percent - followed by the SPD with 20.8 percent and the CDU with 12.1 percent. At the time, the Left only received 11.8 percent. With the right choice, the Socialists got 14.1 percent in 2021 (SPD 21.4 percent, Greens 18.9, CDU 18.0, AfD 8.0, FDP 7.1).

The Left could also win in the real Berlin House of Representatives election, which will take place next Sunday, although not by as much as among under-16s. The latest poll by the elections research group predicts the party will win 23 percent of the vote. The following places are followed by the CDU with 21 percent, the AfD with 17 percent, the Greens with 15 percent and the SPD with ten percent. The BSW and all other parties would fail at the five percent hurdle.

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