Berlin election: FDP threatens fifth defeat in a row since the federal election
Berlin election
FDP threatens fifth defeat in a row since the federal election
FDP top candidate Sebastian Czaja is hugged by Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai in Berlin despite the weak preliminary figures. photo
© Jörg Carstensen/dpa
It could be the next setback for the FDP. If she flies out of the Berlin House of Representatives, the trend in state elections since the 2021 federal election would continue.
Since forming the traffic light coalition at federal level together with the SPD and the Greens, the FDP have to put up with tough slips in state elections. If the Liberals do not move into the Berlin House of Representatives, it would be the third state election since autumn 2021, in which the FDP of party leader Christian Lindner fails to enter a state parliament. After two more state elections, the government went into the opposition.
According to the latest projections from ARD and ZDF, the Free Democrats will land in Berlin between 4.6 and 4.8 percent and fail at the five percent hurdle.
The Liberals have been represented in the Berlin House of Representatives since 2016, and in the September 2021 election they still had 7.1 percent. In the repeat election on Sunday, after the first projections, she now had to worry about entering the House of Representatives.
Most recently, the FDP had in October 2022 at the state election in Lower Saxony lost a third of their votes and was kicked out of parliament with only 4.7 percent. Previously, in March 2022, the party had not managed to enter the state parliament in Saarland, despite growth to 4.8 percent. A good 1000 votes were missing.
In the other two state elections in 2022, the Liberals made it into the respective state parliaments, but were kicked out of the governments after a large loss of votes. In Schleswig-Holstein it fell by 5.1 points to 6.4 percent in May. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the FDP fell shortly afterwards by 6.7 points to 5.9 percent.
