The mayoral election in Darmstadt is entering a second round. According to the provisional official final result, Green candidate Michael Kolmer achieved the best result with 23.7 percent, followed by SPD politician Hanno Benz (20.6 percent). Who will be the new mayor of the fourth largest Hessian municipality must show a runoff election on April 2nd. Voter turnout was 48.6 percent, up from 43.9 percent in 2017.
Third place was Kerstin Lau, candidate of the Uffbasse voters’ association with almost 19 percent. CDU candidate Paul Georg Wandrey took fourth place with 18.2 percent of the vote. A total of ten candidates were admitted to the election.
“I am overjoyed with this result,” said Michael Kolmer at the municipal election party after the preliminary result was announced. “Of course I didn’t expect a march through. That would have been arrogant,” said the Green politician. Kolmer referred to the broad field of competitors and the different situation compared to the last mayor election in 2017, in which incumbent Jochen Partsch (Greens) was confirmed in office in the first ballot with an absolute majority. The aim is now to win over voters with social and ecological issues.
“The best thing about this election is the turnout,” said runner-up Hanno Benz (SPD). “The classification of the result shows that the city is divided, that people are not satisfied with the current policy,” said Benz, accompanied by individual boos from the audience. With a view to topics such as the traffic turnaround, Benz emphasized working together, not against each other.
“I’m a bit sad myself, I would have liked to have gone into the runoff,” said third-placed Kerstin Lau (Uffbasse). Nevertheless, their result shows that voting is not only based on party affiliation, but also on topics. “It’s not quite enough yet, but that’s coming,” said Lau.
The winner of the run-off election will succeed the still incumbent mayor Jochen Partsch (Greens). He announced last May that he would not compete again for personal reasons. He has been the mayor of the southern Hessian city since 2011. In the last election, he prevailed in the first ballot with more than 50 percent of the votes against eight competitors. His term ends in June.
election result
