HAMBURG - about the coming elections

My special comments today are - as promised some days ago - about the coming general ELECTIONS IN HAMBURG on Sunday, February 23.
Hamburg was independent until 1871. Now it is one of the 16 federal states in Germany. Its Parliament is called BÜRGERSCHAFT  ( a name from the Middle Ages ). In English it means Citizenry. I has a mayor and a deputy mayor. The other members of the government are called Senators.  The Parliament has 121 members. All citizens in Hamburg have the right to vote, including the 16 and 17 years olds.  They have had that right since 2013.
In this election there are 733 candidates from 15 different parties.  An interesting initiative is that NDR ( Norddeutsche Rundfunk ) has made a public NDR Canidate Check  - a database with brief information about each candidate who wants to be part of it. About 500 candidates have agreed. It also includes a short video in which each candidate presents her or his programme. See more on:  https://kandidatencheck.ndr.de   
The government in Hamburg is normally run by SPD, the social-democrats. This is also the case at the moment.  They have the government together with the Greens ( with a majority of 73 mandates out of 121 ). The SPD mayor is Peter Tschentscher and the deputy mayor Katharina Fegebank from the Greens.

The most important topics in the present election campaign are:
1.  Traffic - Hamburg's nickname is often:  Staustadt Hamburg, because there are so many queeues of cars ( Stau ) in the city.  The Greens want a carfree centre of the city.  And more public transport is also one of the key topics under discussion.
2. More bicycle tracks are also an important discussion point
3. Climate issues:  should all diesel cars be prohibited in the city? a duty to the many cruise ships on visit to take electricuty from land instead of letting their very polluting motors ran during their stay.
4. A stop for increasing rents for housing.  SPD promises 10.000 more Apartments the coming five years
5. Initiatives to make the Elbe river deeper making it possible for bigger ships to come to Hamburg.

What is the likely outcome of the elections?  The opinion polls tell that SPD will continue to be the biggest party ( with 37 % ). The Greens increase to 25 %.  The opposition parties:  CDU go down to 13 %.  The left party Die Linke get 8 %.  The rightwing AfD  (Alternative für Deutschland ) get 7 %. And FDP ( the liberals ) get 4,5 %.  If these figures will be the final result, the FDP will not get any seats in Parliament any more.  Hamburg has a limit of at least 5 % to get mandates.
Now it is up to the voters on Sunday.

If/when you are in Hamburg next time and enjoy the lovely area in the centre around the Alster you should also make a visit to the impressive Ratskeller. This is the restaurant in the basement of the City Hall/Parliament. Like in most german cities the Ratskeller is a pleasant visit for the eye - and against thirst and hunger 

And where can you follow politics in Hamburg in English?  The two weeklies Die Zeit and Der Spiegel have on-line services in English - though, not only about Hamburg. Deutsche Welle  (  www.dw.de ) is an English languages news service for all of Germany.  The main daily newspaper in Hamburg is Hamburger Abendblatt: www.abendblatt.de    It is in German.  When I open it in my browser on my smart phone I get it in English.  If that does not work, it is a good way to brush up your German.

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