An analysis of the results shows: The new Stuttgart Mayor Frank Nopper did not really win the election. Rather, the quarreling left camp has lost them.
The sensation did not materialize in Stuttgart. A 30-year-old on the executive chair in the town hall, this experiment was perhaps too daring for a majority of the voters in the state capital. The victory of the CDU candidate Frank Nopper in the runoff election on Sunday is a good five percentage points ahead of Marian Schreier, but much closer than many would have thought. And that despite the fact that Hannes Rockenbauch, a third promising candidate, was involved in the race until the end.
Schreier can be regarded as a secret election winner simply because he was able to unite 36.9 percent of the votes in the runoff election without being very well known, which corresponds to more than 73,000 votes. In the first ballot three weeks ago, he was still 15 percent behind Frank Nopper and Veronika Kienzle. The Greens had withdrawn their candidacy after their disappointing result (17 percent).
Nopper won with the outskirts
With Nopper, voters in Stuttgart rely on safety, consistency and OB experience. The mayor of the small town of Backnang had appeared astonishingly bland in two large live debates in November. But his solid message of closeness to the citizen and experience, as well as his promise to “shine” a city that often sells below value, convinced a majority in the end.
Marian Schreier, independent candidate for the mayoral election in Stuttgart 2020: In the second ballot, he only made it to second place. (Source: Marijan Murat / archive image / dpa)
Nevertheless, the 59-year-old born in Stuttgart takes up his position with a big mortgage. Because if you look at the election results in detail, you will find that the new mayor was unable to win a single one of the five large inner city districts. Instead, Schreier hurried away from him by up to 17 percentage points.
Urban Stuttgart wanted to try something new and help the young Marian Schreier into the town hall. Nopper won his election in the periphery: In outskirts such as Hedelfingen, Münster or Mühlhausen, the CDU veteran was able to achieve dream results of more than 50 percent in some cases. Another part of Nopper’s mortgage is that not even one in five eligible voters voted for him. Because only 44.7 percent of those eligible to vote even voted on Sunday. Nopper received a good 83,000 votes, 20,000 fewer votes than his predecessor Fritz Kuhn (Greens) eight years ago.
Rockenbauch helped the CDU to victory
Nopper’s victory results not least from the unity of the conservative camp. The CDU district association never left any doubt that it was convinced of its candidate, and there was no competition from its own camp. As closed as the ranks of the conservatives were, those of the eco-social camp presented themselves as incomplete. After the first ballot, the candidates from the center-left parties received well over 50 percent of the vote.
Hannes Rockenbauch (right), candidate of the parliamentary group SÖS / Linke and the new Stuttgart mayor Frank Nopper: Rockenbauch only achieved third place in the mayor election. (Source: Marijan Murat / dpa)
Because Hannes Rockenbauch was not ready to withdraw his candidacy in favor of Schreier despite the poorer ranking after the first ballot, the votes on the left of the center were split between two candidates on Sunday. The laughing third is called Frank Nopper.
For Hannes Rockenbauch, the defeat must hurt twice. On the one hand, he is now considered by many to be the one who helped the CDU recapture the town hall – a prestigious post that Christian Democratic candidates have been able to occupy on a permanent basis since the end of the war until 2012 and which is considered the most important in the country after that of the Prime Minister.
On the other hand, the 40-year-old let himself be bought by a ten-year-old newcomer who hardly anyone in Stuttgart knew until a few weeks ago. And that, although Rockenbauch has been a member of the local council for 16 years, is one of the veterans of the resistance against the Stuttgart 21 station project and one of the few local politicians who is known beyond the city limits.
The fact that he hardly improved in the second ballot in contrast to Marian Schreier is due to himself. His appearances bordered on high-handedness, and his radical positions, including above all his dogged S21 opposition, have long fallen on deaf ears with the vast majority of urban society.
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