Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin | Live blog about today's elections

Photo: dpa/Fabian Sommer 5 p.m.: The crux of the matter is the socialization of large housing companies in Berlin

One of the central issues for the election in Berlin is the rent and housing crisis and - associated with it - the socialization of large housing companies. Already in 2021, in the referendum initiated by the Deutsche Wohnen und Co expropriate initiative (DWE), a majority of 59.1 percent voted in favor of socializing large housing groups with more than 3,000 apartments in Berlin. However, the successful referendum was not implemented by the Berlin state government. According to recent surveys, a large majority of 63 percent of Berliners are still in favor of socialization.

There were already heated arguments during the election campaign about whether a future state government should implement the referendum or not. A possible coalition of the Left, the Greens and the SPD would be divided on this issue. While the Left speaks out in favor of socialization and the Greens see themselves bound to the implementation of the referendum, SPD leading candidate Steffen Krach is a vehement opponent of expropriation. He had said he would not join a coalition that made expropriation a prerequisite. In the nd interview, Karla Hildebrandt, spokeswoman for DWE, explains what the initiative thinks and what its current plans are.

4.55 p.m.: Who will win the Schwerin I constituency? Particular attention will be given to the result in the Schwerin I constituency this evening after the polling stations close. There, SPD Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig and the AfD's "prime ministerial candidate" Leif-Erik Holm are competing against each other. Both cast their votes in the morning.

4.40 p.m.: Regional bishop: "Ethnic nationalism is incompatible with the Christian view of God and man." In Schwerin Cathedral, the regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany, Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt, emphasized in her sermon on election Sunday that Christian faith contradicts all forms of exclusion, contempt and violence. At the same time, she warned that there should be no “creeping habituation to a kind of normality of evil, to evil and unscrupulousness.” "Because in this way, with the slow and increasing habituation to evil, to inhumane language, images and actions - this is how dictatorships and tyrants also begin to slowly creep into people's minds and hearts."

4.30 p.m.: Who is allowed to vote in Berlin - and who is not? A good one in four Berliners is not entitled to vote in the House of Representatives election. According to the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistics Office, 976,419 foreigners lived in the capital as of the last reference date on December 31, 2025. They are all affected by the decisions of state politics, but are not allowed to elect their representatives.

The situation is different at the district level. At least EU citizens aged 16 and over have the right to vote and stand as candidates in local elections in Germany. In Berlin there are a total of around 273,000 people. In the districts of Neukölln and Tempelhof-Schöneberg, an “independent, migrant voter community” that calls itself “Foreigners for Berlin” is running for the first time. Why she does this and what she wants can be read here.

4.30 p.m.: Raising the mood against the election in the northeast on social media. In social networks, an attempt is being made to stir up sentiment against the election with videos of postal ballots for the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, on which the AfD is allegedly missing. According to the state election authorities, the ballot papers shown are forgeries.

4:15 p.m.: Will the CDU make it into the Schwerin state parliament? The outcome of the duel for the strongest force between the AfD and the SPD, which has made a remarkable comeback with Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig, is eagerly awaited in the northeast. The performance of the smaller parties also provides a thrill - especially for the CDU. The Christian Democrats, shaken by the election defeat in Saxony-Anhalt and the quarrels surrounding Chancellor Friedrich Merz, have recently come dangerously close to the five percent hurdle in surveys in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

4:05 p.m.: Left leader Eralp: "We have a great chance of changing Berlin" "If someone had told me a year ago that we had such a great chance of really changing Berlin - I wouldn't have expected it, even if I of course hoped so," says Elif Eralp, the Left's top candidate for the election to the Berlin House of Representatives, in a video on Instagram. Polls predict a neck-and-neck race between the Left and the CDU for victory in today's election. Both parties are predicted to achieve results of around 20 percent.

What is certain is that the Left will significantly improve its result compared to the last election. In the repeat election in 2023, the party received 12.2 percent of the vote. The CDU is completely different. She is expected to lose a lot of votes. In 2023 she received 28.2 percent of the vote. Certainly one reason for this: the devastating results after three years in government, which can be read in the text by Marten Brehmer.

4 p.m.: Higher voter turnout in Mecklenburg-Western PomeraniaIn Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, after a highly polarized election campaign, which was most recently characterized by the SPD and AfD's neck-and-neck race, there are signs of a higher voter turnout than in the last election in 2021. According to the state election management, 40.7 percent of those eligible to vote in the northeast had already cast their vote by 2 p.m. At this time five years ago it was 32.5 percent.

3:55 p.m.: According to the police, there was isolated damage to property before the start of the election in Berlin. According to the police, there was isolated damage to property when the polling stations opened. A lock was glued to a polling station in Schöneberg. “Access to the polling station was able to be restored by the polling station board itself,” as police spokesman Jörn Iffländer said in a post on the X platform. Overall, the election Sunday went “completely problem-free”. “We are very satisfied with how the operation went.” In total, the police have 1,100 officers on duty.

3.45 p.m.: What is being voted in Berlin In each of the 78 constituencies in Berlin, a direct candidate is elected for the House of Representatives. The second votes of the approximately 2.5 million eligible voters determine the distribution of seats. There are normally 130 representatives, currently there are 159 due to overhang and compensatory mandates. In addition, the voters are redefining the composition of the local parliaments in the twelve districts.

3:25 p.m.: 3.8 million people eligible to vote. In Berlin, around 2.5 million eligible voters can cast their votes for the election to the House of Representatives, and around 1.3 million people in the northeast.

3.15 p.m.: CDU Presidium meets in Berlin on election evening This evening, the CDU Presidium around Federal Chairman and Chancellor Friedrich Merz meets in Berlin for consultations in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus. Merz has been under massive pressure since the debacle in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt two weeks ago, where the CDU finished behind the AfD.

3:00 p.m.: Turnout in the Berlin election so far higher than in 2023The turnout in the election for the Berlin House of Representatives has so far been higher than in the 2023 election. At 12:00 p.m. it was 27.9 percent, as the state election authorities announced. At the same time in 2023 it was 23.4 percent.

2:45 p.m.: Young people are allowed to vote for the first time

For the first time, young people aged 16 and over are allowed to vote in the House of Representatives election in Berlin. This was previously possible in the elections to the district council assemblies and in the European elections. When voting for the state parliament, the minimum age previously applied was 18 years. And in the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, 16 and 17 year olds also have the right to cast their vote for the first time. Agencies/nd

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