Elections | Offset: Five fewer seats in the Berlin parliament

With only 18.8 percent of the vote, the Berlin CDU has lost its way. Photo: dpa/Sven Kaeuler As it turned out on Friday, Bettina Meißner (CDU) did not win constituency 1 in the Berlin district of Spandau in the House of Representatives election on September 20th and thus a seat in parliament. During the quick telephone call on the evening of the election, it was announced that Meissner was 80 votes ahead of the AfD candidate Tommy Tabor. But this result differed from the electoral board's transcript, which always happens. The recount now shows that Tabor is actually ahead by 34 votes.

This has an impact on the calculation of the compensation mandates. All winners in the capital's 78 constituencies automatically sit in the House of Representatives. But the distribution of seats must still be such that it corresponds to the second votes cast for the parties. This is guaranteed with so-called overhang mandates. With Tabor's victory, fewer overhang mandates are currently needed.

"153 candidates will receive a seat in the House of Representatives, not 158, so five will be eliminated," the dpa news agency quoted state returning officer Stephan Bröchler as saying on Friday. According to the "Tagesspiegel", in addition to the CDU candidate Meißner, Martin Matz from the SPD, Oda Hassepaß from the Greens and Coco Aglibut and Bettina Günter from the Left are apparently affected. Contrary to expectations, these five would not sit in parliament after all.

This means that a mathematically possible coalition of the CDU, the Greens and the SPD would only have a majority of two votes. So far it had looked like a slim majority of three votes. However, an online petition launched on Wednesday demands that the Greens and the SPD come to an agreement with the Left, which is the clear election winner with 25.7 percent of the vote. A red-green-red coalition would have had one vote fewer than previously believed as a result of the recount. But with 14 votes over the thirst, it would still be a comfortable majority in parliament.

“After the Berlin election, the Left, Alliance 90/The Greens and the SPD have the responsibility to make a policy change possible,” says the petition, which had already been signed by more than 14,000 people on Friday around 4:30 p.m. The CDU of the outgoing mayor Kai Wegner has been voted out by the population.

The “Berlin Together” campaign, which was launched in April, is behind the petition. Their core demands for future MPs were: punish rent extortion, make buses and trains affordable with a 9-euro ticket, community schools up to the 10th or 13th grade as a rule, expropriate large housing companies and a Berlin ID card for homeless people and migrants who have not yet been able to register due to lack of a residential address and therefore receive no social benefits and no job, but also no apartment.

On Thursday, the Left, the Greens and the SPD held their first official preliminary discussion. They agreed to confidentiality and did not reveal afterwards how it went. We should continue to talk to each other. When? There was also silence about the appointment. After an election, it is normal for explorations to lead to coalition negotiations. But the preliminary discussions took place before the usual exploratory discussions.

The state chairmen before the first official conversation (from left): Bettina König (SPD), Kerstin Wolter (Left) and Nina Stahr (Greens) talk to journalists before a meeting of the Left with representatives of the SPD and Alliance 90/The Greens. Photo: dpa/Soeren Stache "I am very pleased that we are starting discussions today," said the Left state chairwoman Kerstin Wolter on Thursday morning and immediately asked for your understanding that no further information would be provided. Green Party leader Nina Stahl said a few sentences to the journalists waiting for such information, but essentially not much more than “good morning.” The SPD state chairwoman Bettina König said: "We have issues to discuss, and we will now do that together."

Finance Senator Stefan Evers (CDU) wrote on RBB-Inforadio on Friday that before any exploratory discussions, these three parties had to come to an agreement in hours-long discussions, apparently without any results for the time being, about "what their attitude to the fight against anti-Semitism and how they should deal with organized crime should be, that is a statement in itself." Evers renewed his accusation that the Left is a security risk. The fact that many Jewish residents see this party as a danger not only has to do with "whether individual actors have an anti-Semitic attitude or not, but who feels structurally strengthened, legitimized or supported by this party, whether they are clan heads or whether they are anti-Semitic milieus."

After Governing Mayor Kai Wegner's popularity was record-breakingly low, the Berlin CDU swapped him as its top candidate for Stefan Evers at short notice. Wegner declared on July 10th that after the election on September 20th he would only remain in office on a temporary basis and would not seek the top position in the Red City Hall again.

»Berlin stands firmly on Israel’s side. With my visit I would like to further breathe life into the still young city partnership with Tel Aviv.«

Wegner is now traveling to Israel from October 6th to 8th. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, once a member of a defunct social democratic party, invited Wegner. The CDU politician also wants to take the opportunity to meet Jerusalem's mayor Moshe Lion. He previously ran for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and is now part of the religious regional party "Our Jerusalem". »Berlin stands firmly on Israel’s side. With my visit, I would like to further breathe life into the still young city partnership with Tel Aviv," explained Kai Wegner on Friday. He also wants to visit the defense company Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) on his trip. The state of Berlin signed a declaration of intent with this group in June 2026 to establish an innovation center.

IAI supplies the Bundeswehr with the Arrow 3 missile defense system, which was first installed at the Holzdorf air base in Brandenburg from mid-2025. The Bundeswehr originally wanted to spend 3.6 billion euros on Arrow 3. That's what it said when the delivery contract was signed in November 2023. The deal is considered the largest arms export deal in Israel's history. This means that the air base and its surroundings will become the most unsafe part of Germany, explained Bundestag member Christian Görke (Left) at the end of 2025. In the event of war, the following applies: "Such military locations are the first targets of attack."

Kai Wegner also wants to visit Kibbutz Re'im, which, like several other places, was attacked by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023, when, among other things, they carried out a massacre nearby among visitors to the Supernova Festival in the Negev Desert. Wegner wants to remember the victims and says: “We will never forget. We are united by the will to strengthen the friendship between Israel and Germany and to shape our future together.«

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