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Hesse has voted: The local elections are about the future composition of the local political bodies. You can read everything you need to know in our ticker.
+++ 10:56 p.m.: The trend result for the election of the city council in Fulda is available: The CDU remains the strongest force, but with 35.1 percent it slips below the 40 percent mark. The AfD gains significantly and reaches 23.2 percent. The third strongest party is the Greens with 11.7 percent.
“We are of course somewhat disappointed by this trend result,” explains CDU city association chairman and mayor Dag Wehner in an initial statement. But he adds: “We hope that the numbers will go up a little tomorrow when the cumulative and variegated ballot papers are counted.” Looking at the AfD’s result, Wehner speaks of “astonishment” and “shock”.
Frank Schüssler, the AfD's top candidate on the list for the Fulda city council, explains: “This time we are three times as strong as in the last election, which of course makes us very happy.” He sees the trend result as a “major task of meeting the needs of citizens”. They will now try to implement everything that was promised in the election campaign.
Trend results for Local election in Hesse
+++ 9:48 p.m.: The trend election results are available in most municipalities in the Fulda district. In Eichenzell, too, the ballot papers with list crosses have now been counted. The CDU is the strongest force with 45.6 percent. In Neuhof, the Christian Democrats are also ahead – with 42.8 percent.
+++ 9:23 p.m.: New election results come in every minute. With the municipality of Künzell, another large municipality in the Fulda district reports a final trend result: the CDU is the strongest force with 47 percent of the votes. In Gersfeld the BfG is ahead with 44.6 percent, in Hofbieber the CDU is clearly in the lead. You can find all the results in our interactive election map in this article.
+++ 8:57 p.m.: In the city of Hünfeld, the trend result points to an absolute majority for the CDU: In the Haunestadt, the Christian Democrats have 59.2 percent. The CDU is also clearly in the lead in Nüsttal. In Hosenfeld there is an absolute majority of the FWG. In Bad Salzschlirf, the Free Voters List is clearly in the lead. The list votes have already been completely counted in all four municipalities.
In the city of Fulda, the trend result will take some time to arrive. After 89 of 102 districts, the CDU is at 36.2 percent. The AfD has 23 percent. The Greens are third party with 11.2 percent.
CDU at Local election strongest force in many municipalities
+++ 8:31 p.m.: Other municipalities in the Fulda district report final trend results: In Petersberg, the CDU is ahead of the citizens' list (21 percent) with 44.5 percent. According to the counting of the ballot papers with a list cross, the Union is also the strongest party in Großenlüder, Burghaun, Flieden, Kalbach and Ebersburg. In Poppenhausen the Free Voters are in the front, in Ehrenberg the Citizens' List is in the lead.
In the election for the Fulda district council, 250 of 403 districts have now been counted. The CDU received 41.8 percent of the vote, followed by the AfD with 24.5 percent. The SPD is behind at 8.9 percent.
+++ 7:49 p.m.: Ballot after ballot is counted. And the trend in the Fulda district is solidifying. The CDU is the strongest force – the Union has 43.9 percent in 128 of 403 districts – followed by the AfD with 25.2 percent. In the election for the city council in Fulda, the CDU is below the 40 percent mark with 37.8 percent in half of the districts. The AfD is at 21.9 percent and is likely to be the second strongest force in the city in the future.
In a municipality in the Fulda district, all list votes have already been counted: in Tann, the CDU has 53.7 percent. The SPD achieved 46.3 percent.
+++ 7:16 p.m.: The first results are now available from (almost) all municipalities in East Hesse. You can find the current status in our interactive election map in this article. In the election for the Fulda district council, the CDU is clearly in the lead with 45.9 percent in 50 of 403 districts. The second force is the AfD with 26.1 percent. According to the results so far, the AfD can also make significant gains in the election for the city council in Fulda and is at 23.5 percent. The CDU achieved 37.7 percent in 18 of 102 districts.
For It will be a long evening for the election workers in the region. More than 11,000 postal ballot envelopes are counted in the Fulda City Palace alone. The votes cast today in the 72 polling stations in the Fulda city area are mostly counted on site at the polling stations.
+++ 6:42 p.m.: In the The local election votes are counted in town halls and polling stations in the region. The first results are coming in. After 10 of 403 electoral districts, the CDU achieved 41.8 percent in the district council elections in Fulda. The AfD is behind with 29.3 percent. In the city of Fulda, too, the CDU is ahead after counting the first districts – ahead of the AfD. Important: On election evening there will only be trend results. Only ballot papers with a list cross are counted.
+++ 6 p.m.: The Polling stations in the region are closed. The election workers open the ballot boxes and then the counting takes place. The order in the city of Fulda: first the city council, then the district council, the local advisory board and finally the foreigners' advisory board. Today, the Foreigners' Advisory Council only counts the total number of ballot papers. There will be trend results for the remaining elections throughout the evening. We report live in our election ticker.
Counting local elections is complex
+++ 4:18 p.m.: Short update with a view to the results this evening: Since counting the huge ballot papers in Hesse is complex, at the end of the election evening there will only be the so-called trend results. What does that mean? First, only those ballot papers on which only a list cross has been marked will be counted.
The individual votes (i.e. the votes that were awarded through cumulation and variegation) will be counted from Monday. This means: The results will only be known in detail tomorrow or the day after. The trend is usually sufficient for the first analysis this evening.
Update from March 15th, 1:24 p.m: The local elections are underway: People in the region can cast their votes at the polling stations until 6 p.m. The parties and voter groups are looking forward to the counting in the evening. The big questions: Is the CDU defending its position as the strongest force in the district and city of Fulda? Can the AfD also make gains at the local level, as it did recently in the federal and state elections? And how is the SPD doing this year?
Brief review: In the 2021 local elections, the CDU was clearly ahead with 44.1 percent in the district and 42.4 percent in the city of Fulda. The second force in the district was the SPD (12.3 percent), in the city the Greens had 16.2 percent.
Local elections in Hesse: polling stations are open
First report from March 15th, 8:01 a.m.:
Fulda – On Saturday, the parties and voter groups in the region once again campaigned for votes. Now the voters have their say. The polling stations have been open since 8 a.m. People in the region can visit until 6 p.m Local election cast their votes.
It's about the composition of the district council, city council and community council as well as the local advisory board. Or to put it another way: it's about the future of the region and the political decisions for the next five years.
The experience of past local elections shows that voters should allow more time in the voting booth than in the federal or state elections. The ballot papers in Hesse are due to the Electoral system with cumulation and variegation often huge. You cast 59 votes for the city council meeting in Fulda alone.
This is also why it works The trend in local elections is increasingly towards postal voting. In the city of Fulda, 12,386 people had applied for postal votes by Thursday. That's about a quarter of all eligible voters.
We'll keep you up to date all day long in our live election ticker. In the evening you will find results, votes and initial analyzes of the election in the city and district of Fulda here. In our interactive data mapswhich are the heart of local election reporting, you will find results from all municipalities in Hesse at a glance.
A “mood trend” for the local elections surveyed by the Dimap survey institute sees the CDU clearly ahead, as fr.de reports. The party received 33 percent of the vote nationwide – after 28.5 percent in the 2021 local elections. The SPD, on the other hand, would fall from 24 percent five years ago to 16 percent now, while the AfD would increase significantly from 6.9 to 18 percent.
