German state and local elections, March 26th

[minionofmidas]

On march 26th, there'll be state elections in Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz and Sachsen-Anhalt. And of course, local elections in Hessen.

I'll go dig for some polls and maybe write some profiles.

[minionofmidas]

Baden-Württemberg
CDU has always been strongest party in state elections, and governed alone throughout the late 70s and the 80s. From 92 to 96, there was a CDU-SPD coalition; there has been a CDU-FDP coalition ever since.
The election law is somewhat weird, pr without lists. (There are a no of constituencies; constituency winners are elected; parties are entitled to seats according to their share of the statewide share of the vote; the remaining seats are given to those of the party's candidates to receive the highest vote total)
State pm Erwin Teufel's departure last year (after a 14 year reign) was somewhat messy - he was more or less couped out by his crown prince of many years Günther Oettinger, who was seeing his chances to the succession decrease with every year that Teufel stayed on. Oettinger then won a ballot of party members against state (and now federal) minister of education Annette Schavan. This was the first time the CDU used a ballot of all party members for something like that, but the campaign was also quite messy.
Just like 5 years ago, the SPD will be running Ute Vogt ... who was seen as something of a rising star 5 years ago but hasn't really risen since. Still, 2001 was their first semi-decent result in well over a decade.
The FDP and Greens have usually polled above-average in Baden-Württemberg. So have far-right parties.
BaWü Greens have a reputation for moderation. There are even rumors that Oettinger might try and go for a CDU-Green coalition after the election, should the Greens poll ahead of the FDP. Gee, I hope not, but if there's any state where it's going to be tried it's Baden-Württemberg (it has been tried at the local level a number of times, sometimes it worked well, sometimes it didn't, but the Greens have suffered badly at the next election pretty much every time.)

2001 result - CDU 44.8% SPD 33.3% FDP 8.1% Greens 7.7% REP 4.4% others 1.7%
Some poll from october - CDU 45.0% SPD 30.0% FDP 8.5% Greens 8.5% Left 4.0% other 4.0% It's an Allensbach poll, so expect right-wing bias.

Rheinland-Pfalz
Fairly rural, fairly conservative actually, "carried" (not that it matters in the German election system) by the CDU in the last two federal elections, this state has, weirdly, been governed by SPD-FDP coalitions since 1991. During the first term, a SPD-Green coalition would have been possible, during the second one, a CDU-FDP coalition would have been possible, during the third term, an SPD-Green coalition would have been possible...RP does things different. Kurt Beck has been the state PM since 1994 (when Rudolf Scharping went to Bonn to become official leader of the opposition) and is personally wildly popular. Former Kohl (who is from the state, and was pm in the 70s) protegé Christoph Böhr is running for the CDU for the third time, and is not popular at all. He rather narrowly survived an attempt to depose him as state party chairman last year. Question would be whether these personal popularity issues will translate into support for party. They sure did last time around, but make no mistake, on an even field the CDU should be winning here.
Greens are quite weak. Left Party did surprisingly well in the Federals, though. SPD (western Pfalz, Nahe area) and CDU (Eifel country, especially) strongholds still map the Protestant-Catholic divide remarkably well.
Election system is the "normal", vote splitting, German kind of pr; has been since 1991.

2001 result - SPD 44.7% CDU 35.3% FDP 7.8% Greens 5.2% other 6.9% with none over 2.5%
Most recent polls (december, november)
Infratest dimap - SPD 39% CDU 37% FDP 10% Greens 6% Left 4% other 4%
Psephos - SPD 41% CDU 37% FDP 10% Greens 5% Left 3% other 4%
Both institutes have polled the state fairly regularly every couple of months, with Psephos results fairly continuously more favorable to the SPD.

Sachsen-Anhalt.
One of those German states to still do the good thing and vote every four years. Old Europe's home state.
Very volatile in state election results. Last election was at the height of FDP's popularity in the Spasspartei, Möllewelle times. Election before that had a freakishly high result for far-right DVU on a freakishly high turnout, both of which had been totally missed out on by pollsters. (In other words, loads of people that noone thought would show up to vote, did so - and voted DVU.)
CDU-FDP coalition under Wolfgang Böhmer since 2002. Not sure whom the SPD and Left are running or whether a coalition between the two is an option. Worth pointing out that from 94 to 2002 the state had first an SPD-Green and then an SPD alone minority government tolerated by the PDS, though, the socalled "Magdeburg model".

2002 results - CDU 37.3% PDS 20.4% SPD 20.0% FDP 13.3% Schill 4.5% Greens 2.0% other 2.5%
Two newest polls - one from december, one from november - are both by Infratest-dimap, so I'll give the newer with change from the older: CDU 31% (-2) SPD 30% (+5) Left 27% (+2) FDP 6% (-3) Greens 2% (-2) other 4% (no change). No idea what caused these changes or if they're real at all.

[minionofmidas]

Definitely. That'll be worth watching. Baden-Württemberg would shock me, though, that was IIRC their second weakest state last year. (I would be able to savour the irony if Baden-Württemberg of all places became the first West German state where the PDS wins seats, though. I'd love it.)

Is the Magdeburg Model still on the table as an option? Or would it have to be a coalition?

[minionofmidas]

Oh yeah, and our local elections...

2001 results statewide...notice that the election law changed between 97 and 01, and the 2001 results are weighted to reflect one man-one vote. (Since 2001 everybody has as many votes as there are seats, and some councils are larger than others, so this was necessary. Before that, it was just one vote for an unchangeable list. Also, the 5% threshold was abolished. And the length of the term was increased. :( )
for district councils, and independent cities -
Turnout 52.9 (-13.1)
SPD 38.5 (+0.5) 755 seats (-52)
CDU 38.1 (+5.1) 739 (+50)
Greens 9.1 (-1.9) 176 (-52)
FDP 5.2 (+1.2) 104 (+71)
REP 2.5 (-4.1) 52 (-67)
other parties 0.7 (-0.9) 13 (+13)
independent slates 5.8 (-0.1) 117 (+17)
Notice that the total no. of seats fell by 20.

For municipalities, and independent cities -
Turnout 53.0 (-13.0)
SPD 38.1 (no change) 5411 (-248)
CDU 37.1 (+4.3) 4835 (+468)
Greens 6.9 (-1.9) 641 (-222)
FDP 4.4 (+0.7) 479 (+213)
REP 0.9 (-1.3) 53 (-53)
other parties 0.4 (-0.8) 23 (-25)
independent slates 12.1 (-1.2) 2028 (-309)
Notice that the total no. of seats fell by 176.

Council size was previously determined by a formula that started with 9 seats for under 5000 inhabitants, 13 seats for 5000-10,000 inhabitants etc and ended with 93 seats for over ...300,000? 400,000? Anyways, only Frankfurt city and Main-Kinzig district council have 93 seats. Since the last election, councils were allowed to opt one size smaller, thence the reduction in seats. (On the district level, Groß-Gerau and Hochtaunus went one smaller, and Odenwald decided not to take the new extra seats it was due thanks to population increase. I have no overview over municipalities.) I *think* a lot more councils have decided to save some money and make it slightly harder for wingnuts to get in by now, so probably fewer seats up for grabs in 2006. I know it's been occasionally talked about in Frankfurt, but not done.

Here's the results for Frankfurt and Offenbach

Frankfurt, 93 seats
turnout 45.9% (-14.6)
CDU 38.5 (+2.2) 36 (0)
SPD 30.5 (+1.3) 28 (-1)
Greens 14.1 (-2.8) 13 (-4)
FDP 4.6 (-1.0) 4 (-1)
FAG 3.9 (+3.9) 4 (+4) anti-airport extension single issue group. Counted among the independent slates in state totals.
REP 2.7 (-3.5) 3 (-3)
PDS 2.3 (+0.7) 2 (+2)
BFF 1.1 (-0.5) 1 (+1) right-wing independent slate. Included a couple of pretty far-right guys, but the bloke on the council has proved reasonable. Name's short for "Citizens for Frankfurt"
ÖkolinX 0.9 (+0.9) 1 (+1) Jutta Ditfurth. The German Green equivalent to Dave Nellist keeping his deposit in Coventry last year. :)
Europe List 0.5 (+0.5) 1 (+1) Italian community activist Luigi Brillante. Citizens of EU countries are entitled to vote in local elections.
other 0.8 (-1.9) 0 (no change)

Offenbach, 71 seats
Turnout 40.0% (-17.1)
SPD 39.5 (+3.3) 28 (+2)
CDU 32.2 (+5.0) 23 (+3)
Greens 9.9 (-1.3) 7 (-1)
FDP 6.5 (+0.1) 5 (no change)
REP 5.1 (-5.7) 4 (-4)
FWG 3.4 (-2.4) 2 (-2) Freie Wählergemeinschaft. The standard name for independent slates. There's a national association of them by now. They've even stood in a couple of state elections, ie Bavaria, Rheinland-Pfalz.
PDS 2.8 (+0.5) 2 (+2)
Animal Rights Party 0.5 (+0.5) 0 (no change)

[minionofmidas]

Nellist did worse than expected in Coventry NE. Or am I missing something? Or do you mean the fact that he's still a counciller there or?...

The fact that here's someone who once was someone in a mainstream party, though out on the extreme end, who's now got his/her own club, whom noone outside his/her hometown cares about, but who still has a small vote base and a lot of name recognition in that place.

[minionofmidas]

And the districts bordering Frankfurt...clockwise from west...
Main-Taunus, 81 seats
Turnout 55.0 (-10.1)
CDU 44.0 (+5.6) 36 (+5)
SPD 28.7 (-0.1) 23 (0)
Greens 11.6 (-0.9) 9 (-1)
FDP 6.7 (-3.0) 6 (0)
FWG 4.8 (-2.1) 4 (-2)
REP 2.6 (-3.8) 2 (-3)
dfb 1.7 (+1.7) 1 (+1). Rightwing populist Heiner Kappel. Had been an FDP councillor for many many years before that (and his' and some followers' walkout is part of the reason for the FDP losses, o/c)

Hochtaunus, 71 (-10) seats
turnout 54.3 (-9.4)
CDU 42.2 (+2.9) 30 (-2)
SPD 27.6 (+1.0) 20 (-1)
Greens 11.8 (-1.9) 8 (-3)
FDP 9.4 (+2.0) 7 (+1)
FWG 6.1 (-1.0) 4 (-2)
REP 2.9 (-3.0) 2 (-3)

Wetterau, 81 seats
turnout 53.5 (-14.7)
CDU 41.0 (+6.7) 33 (+2)
SPD 38.8 (+0.9) 32 (-3)
Greens 7.5 (-2.1) 6 (-3)
FWG/UWG 4.9 (-1.9) 4 (-2) formerly two separate slates of independents. Fused ... like ... a decade ago.
FDP 4.0 (+0.8) 3 (+3)
NPD 3.3 (+0.2) 3 (+3)
REP 0 (-4.5) 0 (0). Not sure if this was a deal with the NPD or they just didn't find any candidates. You'll notice they do much worse in municipalities than in districts ... that's because they don't find anybody to run. In parts of rural Hessen, the Greens and even the FDP have the same problem actually.
other 0.5 (0) 0 (0)

Main-Kinzig, 93 seats
turnout 53.2 (-13.4)
SPD 40.0 (+1.5) 37 (-2)
CDU 38.1 (+5.4) 35 (+2)
Greens 8.3 (-2.0) 8 (-3)
REP 5.0 (-5.2) 5 (-5)
FDP 4.0 (+1.0) 4 (+4)
FWG 3.7 (-1.2) 3 (+3)
PDS 0.9 (+0.9) 1 (+1)
other 0 (-0.5) 0 (0)

Offenbach rural, 87 seats
turnout 50.8 (-15.6)
CDU 45.5 (+8.2) 39 (+3)
SPD 32.1 (-0.9) 28 (-4)
Greens 11.1 (-1.9) 10 (-2)
FDP 4.6 (+0.6) 4 (+4)
WG Die Bürger 3.5 (-1.3) 3 (+3) (change on FWG)
REP 3.2 (-4.0) 3 (-4)
other 0 (-0.8) 0 (0)

Groß-Gerau, 71 (-10) seats
turnout 52.3 (-13.8)
SPD 45.9 (-1.6) 33 (-8)
CDU 30.0 (+3.5) 21 (-2)
Greens 11.9 (-0.4) 8 (-3)
FDP 4.4 (+1.3) 3 (+3)
REP 4.0 (-3.3) 3 (-3)
FWG 2.0 (-0.2) 2 (+2)
PDS / OL 1.8 (+0.7) 1 (+1) OL is for Open List, ie including candidates unaffiliated with the PDS, ie, in this case, DKP members. Change is on DKP.

[minionofmidas]

I hear that when Tony Blair was first in the Commons, he and Nellist shared an office.

[minionofmidas]

Really? I thought it was his third run, too... Who ran in 1996?

[minionofmidas]

Don't wanna start another new three-responses thread, but Johannes Rau is dead at 75.

[minionofmidas]

Really? I thought it was his third run, too... Who ran in 1996?

The German Wikipedia article about Böhr says he ran in 1996 and 2001.

After he lost the 1996 election he was deposed by the CDU, but managed to return to the top of the party just in time to be defeated again in the 2001 election.

except it doesn't actually say he ran in 96. It says he was leader of the parliamentary party up to the 96 elections and took the position again in 97. I've done a little more research, and the candidate for the pm position in 1996 was actually Johannes Gerster, who retired from politics in 1997.

By the way, here's a map of the Catholic share of RhP population in 1987:
 During the 96-01 term, over 80% of CDU MdLs were Roman Catholic.

[minionofmidas]

except it doesn't actually say he ran in 96. It says he was leader of the parliamentary party up to the 96 elections and took the position again in 97. I've done a little more research, and the candidate for the pm position in 1996 was actually Johannes Gerster, who retired from politics in 1997.

So, Gerster, who had run und lost the election, deposed Böhr and took his office? And the CDU did this, because... they were so happy that Gerster had lost the election, they had to reward him somehow?

The SPD did the same thing with Scharping in 1994 in the Bundestag. Gerster did gain votes compared with the 1991 debacle. Of course that wasn't hard. Same goes for Scharping 94 compared with the 1990 debacle, of course.

[minionofmidas]

My condolences.

[minionofmidas]

New polls by infratest Dimap -
Baden-Württemberg
CDU 45%
SPD 29%
FDP 9%
Greens 9%
Left 4%

If the pm were directly elected, 39% would vote for pm Günther Oettinger, 33% for SPD candidate Ute Vogt. The remainder would vote for somebody else, not at all, or is undecided. Oettinger's job approval is just 37%.

Rheinland-Pfalz
SPD 42%
CDU 36%
FDP 8%
Greens 6%
Left 4%

56% would prefer if the current government remained in place, 34% would prefer it were replaced, 10% aren't sure.

[minionofmidas]

New poll for Baden-Württemberg (IfM Leipzig):

CDU 49%
SPD 30%
FDP 8%
Greens 7%
WASG 2%

Ouch.

Who's IfM, though?

[minionofmidas]

Ah, btw.
Story I'd long been wanting to tell.
Frankfurt - and many other municipalities in the state - has 16 district councils (with sod-all power) below the city level. The formula for council size is the same as for municipalities, except with a cap at 19. In practice, that means 13 of the 16 councils have 19 members, and 3 have 9. (11 of the councils represent the city area as it stood from 1928 to 1973. The other 5 are much smaller, and represent formerly independent municipalities incorporated in the 70's.) Of these, Kalbach has recently grown past 5000 inhabitants, but has opted to stay at 9 members rather than increase to 13.
Anyhow, that was the introduction...now to the story: You think 10 parties for 93 seats is a lot of parties? How about 8 parties for 19 seats?

Apart from the normal parties - CDU, SPD, Greens, FDP, REP - Frankfurt's District 7 (official name Center-West, but noone uses these. Area covered is Rödelheim, Praunheim, Hausen and the Industriehof.) has long had a group called Die Rödelheimer (in the UK it'd probably be called Rödelheim Independents).
In 2000, the council's three-member Green Party had a falling out. Two of them left the Green Party but continued to sit on the council, the third did the opposite. These two now partyless councillors, with some friends, ran in 2001 as a "die farbechten" (The True Colours will do, I suppose) slate. Of course, there was also a new Green slate.
In 1997, Rödelheim Italo-German, Cosimo Viva was elected a CDU city councillor. He never felt very at home in the CDU parliamentary party, and when in 2001 he was given a not-a-chance-in-hell position on the city council CDU list, and a very-little-chance position on the district council list as an appeaser, it was the stroke that broke the camel's back. He renounced his party membership, but agreed to keep silent about it until after the elections so as not to hurt the CDU's election chances.

In the 2001 elections, the distribution of votes for the council was as follows -
SPD 34.2% - 6 seats
CDU 33.8% - 6 seats
Greens 12.4% - 2 seats
FDP 8.0% - 2 seats
Die Rödelheimer 4.6% - 1 seat
die farbechten 3.1% - 1 seat
REP 3.0% - 1 seat
BFF 0.9% - no seats
...and Viva received just enough personal votes to climb up several spots on the CDU list, to 6th place. He took his seat and sat as an Independent throughout the term (so there were just 5 CDU people).

die farbechten will run a joint slate with WASG and PDS this time around (with the current councillor at no.1). Viva is not running for reelection.

[minionofmidas]

Rödelheim Independents is possible (ala East Cleveland Independents, South Shropshire Independents etc, etc...) but it might also be the Rödelheim Residents Association.

I always felt "Residents Association" has a very rightwing sound. For most of the 97-01 period, the council was run by a SPD-Green-Rödelheimer coalition. After the Green chaos, it was run by an SPD-Rödelheimer coalition that had to rely on outside support. (Granted, that's probably also the reason their vote almost halfed in 2001.)

[minionofmidas]

This should be interesting for Lewis:
http://de.news.yahoo.com/11032006/336/cdu-haengt-spd-frankfurt.html

Poll for Frankfurt city council (Ipos/FGW, n=1066)

CDU 39%
SPD 28%
Greens 19%
FDP 6%
Left Party 5%
Other 4% (should be 3% to get 100%?)

Probably due to rounding.
This poll was paid for by the FAZ. If recent local elections are anything to go by, it shows more or less the result the FAZ paid for.
That said, it's more or less in line with what I was thinking. I'd expect the final CDU and Green results somewhat lower, the other vote higher, though.
Two more things to note - this election will probably have a freakishly low turnout, even lower than 5 years ago. The campaign - EVERYBODY's campaign - has been highly uninspiring so far. It's basically, "Hey - don't blame us, it was everybody else's fault". Logical result of that absurd CDU-SPD-Green-FDP power-sharing pact that was never popular...

[minionofmidas]

Two CDU ward (or whatever you call it) councillors died yesterday, both running for reelection, one (Gerd Riechemeier, dead at 70) also a member of the city council, where he was not however running for reelection. (He wanted to, he wasn't renominated.)

The dead men will remain on the list (and since Riechemeier headed the Bergen-Enkheim list, he will no doubt be elected.)
The other guy - never heard the name before - died in a fire in his own flat by the way, aged 46. Shame.

[minionofmidas]

Polling day tomorrow. Which means I have to be out in the hindmost corner of the Nordweststadt at 7.30 on a sunday morning. (I'm a pollworker there. Polls open at 8.). Which means I need to get up at 6.00, 6.15, roundabout that.
And they're switching to summertime tonight, so it's really 6.30, 7.00, 5.00, 5.15.


Funny thing. There's this guy I used to know quite well some years ago, Manuel Stock. Lived in the same neighborhood as I did when I was 17-19, went to the same school as my "stepsister", a year younger than me, parents active in the local Greens just as my dad was. We went clubbing together sometimes back then, too. I don't think I've run across him for 3, 4 years though. Anyways, he was active from an awfully early date in the Green Party's fledgling youth organization - something I've never bothered to do.
And in 2001 he got nominated for the council, pretty high up the list. I went around thinking that pretty soon I'd have a mate on the city council. As it turned out the Greens did badly, he lost two places due to individual candidates' votes, and he wasn't elected, but he was the first runner-up, so if any Green councillor died or resigned, he'd be in. Which happened in, er, 2004 I think, by which time I'd lost contact with him.

Now, he's running for reelection. There's actually posters with his mug on it up - All the parties have printed posters for ridiculously high numbers of individual candidates this time, usually found most densely in the areas where they expect said candidate to do well. In the gay nightlife district of the NE Downtown, the SPD has a poster with two far-down-the-list candidates and the slogan "Gaymeinsam für Frankfurt". The Greens have sitting councillors Stefan Majer and Manuel Stock, individually, and the Wowereit-inspired line "Ich bin GRÜN und das ist auch gut so."
It does feel a bit odd, getting told by public advertisement that an old mate is gay...

[minionofmidas]

I congratulate Saxony-Anhalt on its record turnout.

Of 45 direct seats there, the CDU won 40 btw . The Left won Magdeburg I, Halle I, and Halle IV. The SPD won Staßfurt (the only seat not won by the CDU last time round) and Hohenmölsen - Weißenfels.

In RhP, the SPD continues to poll more second votes than first votes ...
Constituency vote there was
SPD 43.3
CDU 38.6. CDU won 18 direct seats, SPD 33.
FDP 7.8
Greens 5.0

Oh, and the 6.5 other includes 1.7 REP, 1.6 FWG, 1.2 NPD, and 7 other parties.

Here in Hessen, the CDU has approximately held (exact results will be out app. thursday. On partial results so far, they've minimally gained. I don't doubt that they will have lost in the end.) The SPD has lost hard. The Greens have gained a bit here, lost a bit there. THe Left has done quite well in parts - 4.3% in Kassel rural district, 4.5% in Groß-Gerau district, 5.4% in Marburg - Biedenkopf district, 6.2% in Offenbach, 6.5% in Kassel, 6.5% in Frankfurt.
Here's the partial result for Frankfurt...
Turnout 40.4% 57.2% unchanged ballots and therefore counted, 38.5% changed and therefore not counted yet, 4.3% wholly invalid
CDU 37.6% SPD 23.0% (!) Greens 15.8% (better than last time, but it's actually the weakest result in any race since the last local elections) Left 6.5% FAG 3.5% (I'd expected they'd falter. They didn't. Good.) BFF 2.5% REP 1.6% NPD 1.4% ÖkoLinx 1.0% EL 0.4% (both these last two can be expected to profit immensely when the full result is in. Last time round, ÖkoLinx had 0.5% and EL 0.2% on unchanged ballots alone.)
Offenbach managed 31.0% turnout.

[minionofmidas]

The previous lowest turnout in a state election ever was 53.8% in Thuringia two years ago...

I've had me a look at Frankfurt's 16 Ortsbeiräte... the Ist where I live has 29.9% turnout, lowest in the city, and 11.6% Left, highest in the city.

[minionofmidas]

Results for those of Hessen's 12 largest cities to be reporting full results by now...with election night's "trend" result and 2001 result for comparison. And seat distribution.

Wiesbaden (only district or non-district city to report so far!)
CDU 36.1 (-0.4) 29 seats (-1) trend 37.6
SPD 30.3 (-4.4) 25 seats (-3) trend 28.3
Greens 12.1 (+1.9) 10 seats (+2) 12.2
FDP 9.0 (-3.0) 7 seats (-3) 9.0
REP 5.0 (+0.1) 4 seats (0) 6.0
BLW 3.7 (did not run) 3 seats 3.1 - some right of center indy slate
Left 3.2 (+1.5) 3 (+1) 3.1
BüSo 0.5 (did not run) 0 0.5 - LaRouchiacs. Almost took a seat. Pretty frightening really.

Hanau
CDU 29.8 (-5.3) 18 (-3) 30.0
SPD 29.3 (-7.2) 17 (-5) 28.5
FDP 11.9 (+7.0) 7 (+4) 12.0 to be expected given Hanau's Grand Coalition's shenanigans...
BfH 9.0 (+2.3) 5 (+1) 8.0 right of center indy
Greens 8.3 (-0.9) 5 (0) 8.2
REP 6.6 (-0.4) 4 (0) 7.2
Left 5.2 (did not run) 3 6.0

Rüsselsheim (large, working class Frankfurt suburb)
SPD 42.0 (-2.2) 19 (-1) 43.2
CDU 32.9 (-0.5) 15 (0) 34.4
Greens 8.8 (+1.0) 4 (0) 7.6
Liste Rüssel 5.8 (-0. 3 (0) 4.7 Left of center indy slate. "Rüssel" translates as "trunk; proboscis"
Left 5.6 (3.0) 2 (+1) 5.1
FDP 4.8 (-0.6) 2 (0) 4.9
BLM 0.1 (did not run) "Citizens for Love and Humanity". No kidding.

Bad Homburg (large, posh Frankfurt suburb)
CDU 42.2 (+3.9) 21 (-2) 43.7 council size decreased
SPD 16.9 (-2.2) 8 (-3) 16.8
Greens 11.2 (-1.2)  (-1) 11.8
FDP 10.7 (+1.9) 5 (0) 10.2
BLB 8.6 (-3.5) 4 (-3) 8.0 right of center indies
NHU 6.3 (did not run) 3 5.3 not sure what type of indies
REP 2.3 (-1.2) 1 (-1) 2.6
Left 1.8 (did not run) 1 1.5
FHW did not run (5.9) (-4) maybe these guys just renamed themselves "NHU"?

leaving the Rhein-Main area and entering Upper Hesse...
Wetzlar
SPD 39.1 (-1.6) 23 (-1) 40.5
CDU 36.0 (-0.2) 21 (0) 35.2
FWG 10.1 (+1.0) 6 (0) 8.9 the standard name for a right of center indy
Greens 8.0 (+0.9) 5 (+1) 8.9
FDP 6.8 (-0.1) 4 (0) 6.5

Marburg
SPD 33.0 (-1.1) 20 (0) 33.6
CDU 32.0 (+3.6) 19 (+2) 33.3
Greens 17.6 (+1.4) 10 (0) 17.4
Left 8.8 (+2.4) 5 (+1) 8.7 ah, college town politics...
FDP 4.9 (-0.2) 3 (0) 3.4
MBL 3.2 (-0.7) 2 (0) 2.3 right of center indy slate
APPD 0.5 (did not run) 0 0.3 the Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany
BfM did not run (5.7) (-3) another right of center indy, not sure what happened

[minionofmidas]

Complete results for the vast majority of municipalities are now in ... and for all the indy cities except Frankfurt ... but for only one district.

Darmstadt
CDU 30.1 (-4.1) 21 (-3) 30.9
SPD 29.0 (-4.5) 21 (-3) 29.6
Greens 15.5 (-0.9) 11 (-1) 14.9
FDP 6.8 (+0.3) 5 (0) 5.9
Uffbasse 6.3 (+4.2) 5 (+3) 6.8 Indy slate to the left of SPD and Greens
UWIGA 6.0 (did not run) 4 (+4) 6.2 Your typical center-right indy slate
Left 2.2 (+0.9) 2 (+1) 2.0
WASG 2.0 (did not run) 2 (+2) 1.8 Yeah, PDS and WASG ran separately here
The Women 1.0 (-0.3) 1 (0) 0.8 Hey, that is the party's name...
AUF 0.6 (0) 0 (0) 0.7 another leftwing indy slate
three more slates that didn't win anything 0.5 (did not run) 0 0.3
4 slates that didn't run any more, including two more leftish-sounding ones that held a seat each, 4.0% together in 2001

Offenbach
CDU 35.4 (+3.2) 25 (+2) 36.6
SPD 32.2 (-7.3) 23 (-5) 31.5
Greens 11.0 (+1.1) 8 (+1) 10.6
FDP 7.5 (+1.0) 5 (0) 6.1
Left 5.3 (+2.8) 4 (+2) 6.2
REP 4.0 (-1.1) 3 (-1) 5.0
FWG 2.9 (-0.5) 2 (0) 2.5
Animal Rights 1.7 (+1.2) 1 (+1) 1.5

Kassel
SPD 39.8 (+3.8) 28 (+2) 40.1
CDU 29.1 (-6.3) 21 (-4) 28.8
Grüne 15.4 (-1.4) 11 (-1) 15.6
Left 6.8 (+3.6) 5 (+3) 6.5
FDP 5.5 (+0.4) 4 (0) 5.5
FWG 1.8 (-0.3) 1 (0) 1.9 Ran as BfK 5 years ago, switched to standard name
AUF 1.7 (+0.4) 1 (0) 1.5 lefty indies (name's for "alternative independent progressive")

Waldeck-Frankenberg district
SPD 36.0 (-3.0) 26 (-1) 37.5
CDU 35.1 (+0.9) 25 (+1) 35.6
FWG 11.6 (+0.7) 8 (0) 9.9
FDP 7.3 (+0.7) 5 (0) 6.8
Greens 6.0 (+0.5) 4 (0) 5.7
REP 2.3 (-1.5) 2 (-1) 2.7
Left 1.7 (did not run) 1 (+1) 1.8

city of Gießen
CDU 36.0 (-2.6) 21 (-2) 37.0
SPD 33.2 (-0.2) 20 (0) 32.5
Greens 12.8 (+3.1) 8 (+2) 13.9
Left 5.9 (+2.1) 4 (+2) 6.0
FDP 5.7 (+0.3) 3 (0) 5.7
FW 3.8 (-3.6) 2 (-2) 3.0
BLG 2.4 (+1.3) 1 (0) 1.9
ABG 0.1 (did not run) 0 0.0
one slate at 0.5 / 0 in 2001 did not run again

city of Fulda ... black as spades, as usual
CDU 58.6 (-3.3) 35 (-1) 57.8
SPD 20.2 (-2.8) 12 (-2) 20.9
Greens 8.4 (+1.4) 5 (+1) 7.9
FDP 4.9 (+2.3) 3 (+1) 4.9
CWE 3.3 (+0.7) 2 (+1) 3.4 Christian Voter Unit :D
Left 2.6 (did not run) 1 3.0
REP 2.0 (-0.9) 1 (-1) 2.1

Mostly I'm just looking at these in order to guess what the final Frankfurt result might look like...

and while I was typing...
Hersfeld-Rotenburg district, where there be cannibals.
SPD 48.1 (-2.6) 29 (-2) 47.5
CDU 37.2 (+1.8) 23 (+2) 38.4
FWG 4.5 (+0.1) 3 (0) 4.3
FDP 3.0 (-0.2) 2 (0) 2.9
Greens 2.9 (-1.1) 2 (0) 2.8
Left 1.9 (did not run) 1 1.9
Independents 1.4 (did not run) 1 1.2 hey, that's what the slate is called
Free German 1.0 (did not run) 0 0.9 ditto
REP (2.8 / 2 in 2001) did not run again.

[minionofmidas]

Ah, comment.

Hmmm. Rüsselsheim is easiest. Home of Opel (which has long been a wholly-owned General Motors subsidiary.)
Bad Homburg is just a rich commuter suburb, with a rich spa town in the center of it.
Offenbach, ah but you know that, formerly very working class, leatherworking industry of which there are still some remnants. Still largely a working class suburb of Frankfurt, but don't tell them I said so.
Hanau, lots of chemical industry, astonishingly dull cultural life.
Wiesbaden, the capital of Hessen. Mostly a rich civil servants town - and (amazingly for a place that large) it doesn't even have a uni. Some industrial areas towards the city's south.
Darmstadt, another former capital city with some of that spirit still alive...big university...suburbs to the west of the city (Griesheim, Weiterstadt et al) are quite working-class, far more so than the city itself.
Wetzlar, formerly the center of the long-defunct Hessian iron mining and foundry industry. Mining in the area came to an end in 1983 (after 3000 years...)
Gießen, weird mix of old but not very large uni, industry, and shockingly ugly postwar architecture.
Fulda, not poor, extremely catholic.
Kassel, I don't know Kassel that well but it's got a rich West and a poor East. Used to be a Social Democrat stronghold until some corruption scandals and a total meltdown 15 years ago...they seem to be back now.
Marburg is of course the ultimate college town. Quite beautiful, too. Surprised the American and Japanese bus tours haven't discovered it yet.

Oh, and together these are the 11 cities in Hessen with 50K to 300K inhabitants.

[minionofmidas]

Interesting. Thanks

Hmmm. Rüsselsheim is easiest. Home of Opel (which has long been a wholly-owned General Motors subsidiary.)

Ah; is it more Dagenham than Longbridge? (ignoring the terminal decline of car manufacturing in both of those places) Or not like either?

Never been to either... :/ What's Dagenham like? What's Longbridge like?

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The suburb bit or the working class bit? [/quote]the suburb of Frankfurt bit, of course.

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Never heard of Armin Meiwes, the Rotenburg Cannibal ?