The 2019 Bremen state election was held on 26 May 2019 to elect the members of the Bürgerschaft of Bremen, as well as the city councils of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The election took place on the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election.
The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) became the largest party in the Bürgerschaft, while the Social Democratic Party (SPD) fell to second place. The Greens and The Left also recorded small upswings.
Despite winning a narrow plurality, the CDU was opposed by a left-wing majority in the Bürgerschaft. Incumbent Mayor Carsten Sieling resigned after the election, and was succeeded by fellow SPD member Andreas Bovenschulte, who formed a three-party coalition government between the SPD, Greens, and Left. This was the first time that The Left had been involved in a government in western Germany.
Parties The table below lists parties represented in the previous Bürgerschaft of Bremen. Name Ideology Leader(s) 2015 result 2019 seats Votes (%) Seats Seats SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany Social democracy Carsten Sieling 32.8% CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christian democracy Carsten Meyer-Heder 22.4% Grüne Alliance 90/The Greens Green politics Maike Schaefer 15.1% Linke The Left Democratic socialism Kristina Vogt 9.5% FDP Free Democratic Party Classical liberalism Lencke Wischhusen 6.6% AfD Alternative for Germany German nationalismRight-wing populism Frank Magnitz 5.5% BiW Citizens in Rage Right-wing populism Hinrich Lührssen 3.2%
Opinion polls
Polling firm Fieldwork date Samplesize SPD CDU Grüne Linke FDP AfD Others Lead 2019 state election 26 May 2019 – 24.9 26.7 17.4 11.3 5.9 6.1 7.7 1.8 Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 20–23 May 2019 1,664 24.5 26 18 12 5 7 7.5 1.5 INSA 15–20 May 2019 1,000 23 28 18 11 6 6 8 5 Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 13–15 May 2019 1,021 24.5 26 18 12 5.5 8 6 1.5 Infratest dimap 13–15 May 2019 1,007 24 27 18 12 5 6 8 3 Infratest dimap 25 Apr–2 May 2019 1,000 25 26 18 12 6 8 5 1 INSA 22 Mar–1 Apr 2019 1,000 25 25 19 11 7 7 6 Tie Infratest dimap 24–30 Jan 2019 1,000 24 25 18 13 6 8 6 1 FGW Telefonfeld 20–23 Aug 2018 1,015 26 26 20 12 7 6 3 Tie pollytix 22 Jun–2 Jul 2018 1,000 28 24 14 14 10 8 2 4 INSA 14–18 May 2018 1,003 22 24 14 17 9 10 4 2 Infratest dimap 13–18 Apr 2018 1,002 26 24 14 15 7 9 5 2 2017 federal election 24 Sep 2017 – 26.8 25.1 11.1 13.1 9.3 10.0 4.3 1.7 Infratest dimap 9–14 Jan 2017 1,003 29 24 13 11 8 11 4 5 Infratest dimap 26 Apr–2 May 2016 1,000 29 22 16 10 7 11 5 7 2015 state election 10 May 2015 – 32.8 22.4 15.1 9.5 6.6 5.5 8.0 10.4
Mayor polling Polling firm Fieldwork date None/Unsure Lead SPD CDU Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 26 May 2019 45 34 - 11 Infratest dimap 26 May 2019 42 36 - 6 Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 23 May 2019 43 31 26 12 Infratest dimap 16 May 2019 42 28 17 14 Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 16 May 2019 42 29 29 13 Infratest dimap 7 May 2019 39 31 18 8
Preferred coalition Polling firm Fieldwork date Assessment SPDGrüne SPDGrüneLinke CDUGrüne SPDCDU CDUGrüneFDP SPDGrüneFDP Forschungsgruppe Wahlen May 2019 Positive 41 39 28 27 26 20 Negative 57 59 68 70 71 76
Election result
| align=center colspan=11| |- ! rowspan="2" colspan="2" | Party ! rowspan="2" | Votes ! rowspan="2" | % ! rowspan="2" | +/- ! colspan="2" | Seats ! rowspan="2" | Totalseats ! rowspan="2" | +/- ! rowspan="2" | Seats % |- ! Bremen ! Bremerhaven |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | align=right| 391,709 | align=right| 26.7 | align=right| 4.3 | align=right| 20 | align=right| 4 | align=right| 24 | align=right| 4 | align=right| 28.6 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Social Democratic Party (SPD) | align=right| 366,375 | align=right| 24.9 | align=right| 7.9 | align=right| 19 | align=right| 4 | align=right| 23 | align=right| 7 | align=right| 27.4 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | align=right| 256,181 | align=right| 17.4 | align=right| 2.3 | align=right| 13 | align=right| 3 | align=right| 16 | align=right| 2 | align=right| 19.0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | The Left (Linke) | align=right| 166,378 | align=right| 11.3 | align=right| 1.8 | align=right| 9 | align=right| 1 | align=right| 10 | align=right| 2 | align=right| 11.9 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Alternative for Germany (AfD) | align=right| 89,939 | align=right| 6.1 | align=right| 0.6 | align=right| 4 | align=right| 1 | align=right| 5 | align=right| 1 | align=right| 6.0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Free Democratic Party (FDP) | align=right| 87,420 | align=right| 5.9 | align=right| 0.7 | align=right| 4 | align=right| 1 | align=right| 5 | align=right| 1 | align=right| 6.0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Citizens in Rage (BiW) | align=right| 35,808 | align=right| 2.4 | align=right| 0.8 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 1 | align=right| 1 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 1.2 |- ! colspan=8| |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Die PARTEI (PARTEI) | align=right| 24,433 | align=right| 1.7 | align=right| 0.2 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ±0 | align=right| 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Free Voters (FW) | align=right| 14,205 | align=right| 1.0 | align=right| 1.0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ±0 | align=right| 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Pirate Party Germany (Piraten) | align=right| 14,143 | align=right| 1.0 | align=right| 0.5 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ±0 | align=right| 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Party of Humanists (Humanists) | align=right| 6,655 | align=right| 0.5 | align=right| 0.5 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ±0 | align=right| 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Basic Income Alliance (BGE) | align=right| 5,970 | align=right| 0.4 | align=right| 0.4 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ±0 | align=right| 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | V-Partei3 (V3) | align=right| 4,277 | align=right| 0.3 | align=right| 0.3 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ±0 | align=right| 0 |- | style="background:#FF7676;" | | align=left | Welcome to Reality (WIR) | align=right| 2,821 | align=right| 0.2 | align=right| 0.2 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ±0 | align=right| 0 |- | style="background:#FF4C25;" | | align=left | Human World (MW) | align=right| 2,565 | align=right| 0.2 | align=right| 0.2 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ±0 | align=right| 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | The Right (Right) | align=right| 627 | align=right| 0.0 | align=right| 0.0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ±0 | align=right| 0 |- ! align=right colspan=2| Total ! align=right| 1,469,506 ! align=right| 100.0 ! align=right| ! align=right| 69 ! align=right| 15 ! align=right| 84 ! align=right| 1 ! align=right| |- ! align=right colspan=2| Voter turnout ! align=right| ! align=right| 64.1 ! align=right| 13.9 ! align=right| ! align=right| ! align=right| ! align=right| ! align=right| |} + 2019 Bremen state election voter demographics Demographic subgroup CDU SPD Grüne Linke AfD FDP Total vote 27 25 17 11 6 6Gender Men 26 23 15 11 9 6 Women 24 25 20 11 5 5Education lower Education 25 39 7 6 11 4 higher Education 24 19 23 14 4 6Election decision (as % of their voters) Disappointment 38 21 24 28 54 37 Conviction 55 69 71 64 42 57Others Last-Minute-Decision 22 25 18 11 4 7 First-time-Voter 11 15 34 14 4 10
References