So, did you manage to get out into the artic conditions yesterday and vote? It looks like half a million other Frankfurters did. Yesterday was another year of low voter turnout with around 37% of the electorate braving the icy wind. Unfortunately you are going to have to do it all over again in two weeks!
*Note: earlier version of this article stated that 58% voted this year. Stadt Frankfurt had a bug in the system and the actual voter turnout was much lower at 37% again…
Feldmann did better than expected yesterday, scooping 46% of the vote beating his closest rival, Bernadette Weyland, who secured 25.4%. However we still have to go to a run off vote in 2 weeks as a candidate hast o win 50% of the vote in the first round if he is to avoid the second round.
So in two weeks there will be another vote, head to head, between Feldmann and Weyland. SPD versus CDU. No one else even came close unfortunately. And for Feldmann, the election seems pretty secure but it isn’t over yet. 6 years ago, when Feldmann won the vote, he was actually the runner up against Boris Rhein from the CDU who won the first round with 39.1% against Feldmann’s 33%. Admittedly the gap wasn’t so large, but in the second round, Feldmann jumped from 33% up to 57.4% to win. Boris Rhein moved from 39.1% to only 42.6% in the second round.
So, essentially, almost everyone who didn’t vote for Rhein in the first round, got together and voter against him in the second round. And you can bet that Feldmann remembers just how amazing it was to pull off such a turn around and he will know that now he is the incumbent going for re-election, exactly the same could happen to him. It is a very real possibility that Weyland could still steal the Mayoral election.
Next vote is on 11th March and it could be very close!
Living in Frankfurt 