BSW | CDU defector enables BSW parliamentary group

Sahra Wagenknecht at the end of the BSW election campaign before the Berlin election on September 20th Photo: dpa/Jens Kalaene Member of the CDU since 1996, first elected to the District Council Assembly (BVV) of Berlin-Spandau in 1999 and head of the BVV from 2023 - a kind of Bundestag President in miniature. But that's history now. Christian Heck is no longer a CDU member or BVV leader. Instead, Heck moved to BSW.

It happens again and again that local politicians go from one faction to another. But they rarely do it so soon after an election. With the Berlin House of Representatives, the twelve Berlin district councils were finally re-elected on September 20th. The BSW was able to announce the new addition before the BVV's constituent meeting took place on Thursday evening.

This overshadows everything that was otherwise castigated as theft of a mandate, for example the departure of Sahra Wagenknecht and nine other members of the Left faction in the Bundestag in 2023 and the subsequent founding of the BSW at the beginning of 2024. But also the change of two Brandenburg BSW state parliament members to the SPD parliamentary group at the beginning of 2026 and the departure of four other BSW state parliament members, three of whom formed their own group and the fourth remained non-attached. Significantly more time had passed since each election.

In such cases, the following applies to all parties: whoever comes is celebrated as a hero. Whoever leaves is supposedly a miserable traitor. Christian Heck is now particularly welcome at the BSW. Because with three district representatives there is parliamentary group status in Berlin and therefore more rights. With Andreas Hehn and Jochen Anders, the BSW in Spandau only has two district councilors. With the new addition Christian Heck they can form a faction.

“It will be the fourth parliamentary group of the BSW in a Berlin BVV and the first in the west of Berlin,” says state chairman Alexander King happily. Only in Stegliz-Zehlendorf is the BSW not represented at all; it has parliamentary groups in the East Berlin districts of Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Lichtenberg and Treptow-Köpenick. All of this provides some consolation for the fact that the party missed out on entering the Berlin House of Representatives with 4.7 percent. But in the districts there is only a minimum limit of three percent instead of the five percent hurdle.

"The BSW is a political factor in Berlin."

King says about the successes at BVV level: »Hardly anyone expected us to achieve this result. The BSW is a political factor in Berlin.« In fact, the BSW can tip the scales here and there when it comes to the election of district mayors and city councilors.

In Spandau on Thursday evening, Frank Bewig (CDU) was elected district mayor, Carola Brückner (SPD) as his deputy and Lars Leschewitz (Left) as his party's first city councilor in Spandau. Leschewitz should take care of health, social affairs and citizen services. Also in office: Gregor Kempert (SPD) as city councilor for schools, sports, further education, culture, youth and family and Thorsten Schatz (CDU) as city councilor for building, planning, traffic, environment, order. However, this distribution of responsibilities does not have to remain the same. The district office is not complete because the AfD faction's strength means it is entitled to two city council positions, but its two candidates failed. Your choice could be made up at later meeting dates.

Siegfried Wärk (CDU) was elected as head of the BVV - and this is said to have played a role in Christian Heck's move to the BSW, so that his CDU did not designate him for this position again. BSW state chairman King also gives other reasons. Heck, who grew up in a Catholic family in Kalkar, North Rhine-Westphalia, became increasingly alienated from the CDU because this party had lost classic conservative values, as King reports. Heck also has difficulties with the firewall policy against the AfD.

In the BSW, a self-description as left-wing conservative has established itself and the firewall is considered a failure in the Wagenknecht party. In this respect, what belongs together would grow together with Christian Heck and the BSW.

“We have known Mr. Heck as a committed district politician for many years,” explains BSW district chairman Andreas Hehn. »With his decades of experience in the BVV, he will be a real reinforcement for us. Together with him, we as the BSW parliamentary group will campaign even more effectively for social and economic concerns in Spandau: non-ideologically, pragmatically and in conversation with all other political and civil society actors.

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