The mayor of Bremen, Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD), has called on the federal government to introduce basic child security as promised. “We have a real need for this basic child security in Bremen,” he said at an election campaign event in Bremen. In the federal traffic light coalition, the FDP shouldn’t be allowed to block this “necessary social reform”. The smallest federal state has a particularly high proportion of poor families.
Shortly after the Easter holidays, the Bremen parties started the hot election campaign phase before the state elections on May 14 with guests from neighboring countries. Bovenschulte received support from the SPD-governed northern states. “Northern Germany is strong because we are a social-democratic alliance,” said Lower Saxony’s Economics Minister Olaf Lies (SPD). The Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig and Hamburg’s Mayor Peter Tschentscher campaigned for Bovenschulte and the Bremen SPD.
Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst came to Bremen from North Rhine-Westphalia to support the CDU and its top candidate Frank Imhoff. During his appearance in Bremen, Wüst called for the federal government to speed up the implementation of legislative projects. Specifically, Wüst mentioned the topics of asylum and migration, planning acceleration and the transformation of the economy. It’s the countries everywhere that are leading the way and putting pressure on them, he said. He also expected the Bremen elections to send a signal to Berlin.
Imhoff said he was counting on the CDU to win the elections. He wants to lead the state of Bremen into a new era. He criticized that the existing government had come to terms with problems in education, work and transport. So far, Bremen has been governed by a coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party. In the last election in 2019, the CDU became the strongest party for the first time, but came away empty-handed when the government was formed.
The SPD event was designed as a concert under the motto “Bovi rocks Bremen” – the nickname of the mayor. In the end, Bovenschulte, who has been making music since his youth, actually picked up the guitar and played three songs to the delight of his comrades: “Rockin’ All Over the World” (Status Quo), “We Will Rock You” (Queen) and finally ” Let’s Twist Again” (Chubby Checker).
