Ulrike Hiller, contender for SPD in Bremen, is required to surrender her candidacy due to insufficient second votes, following the footsteps of AfD.
Electoral Reforms Shake Things Up: The Case of Bremen and AfD's Sergej Minich
The German Bundestag's shrinkage to 630 members has got everybody talking, most notably, for those in Bremen. The new rule on seat allocation, effective since 2021, has drastically altered the landscape of political representation. SPD candidate Ulrike Hiller learned this the hard way by winning her constituency but failing to secure a spot in the Bundestag. In her stead, the AfD has managed to push in a candidate - none other than Sergej Minich.
Despite Minich's controversy-laden past, including a pivotal, near-fatal mistake in 2023 that saw his party disqualified from participating in the state election, he's now unapologetically making his mark on the Bundestag.
SPD's Loss, AfD's (Temporary) Gain
Ulrike Hiller, a seasoned politician who spent seven year as the State Councilor for Federal and European Affairs, Bremen's representative to the Federal Government, and Europe, thought she had a surefire shot at securing her place in the Bundestag. She was directly elected by her constituency, but the new regulations haven't made things that simple anymore.
In this brave new world of electoral reforms, all direct mandate votes must cover their second vote counterparts. Overhang mandates are a thing of the past. Although Bremen remains a traditional bastion of the SPD, with 23.1% of the second votes, the party could only claim one mandate this time around. Uwe Schmidt was the sole SPD representative to make it to the Bundestag, having secured a direct mandate in Bremenhaven.
The (Reluctant) Newcomer: Minich's Controversial Entrance
The other members representing Bremen in the Bundestag are Uwe Schmidt (SPD), Thomas Röwekamp (CDU), Kirsten Kappert-Gönther (The Greens), and Doris Achelwilm (The Left), with Sergej Minich (AfD) completing the pack. While Schmidt, Röwekamp, and Kappert-Gönther remain familiar faces, Achelwilm has made a comeback after parting ways in 2018, and Minich, the AfD's deputy state chairman, is embarking on his parliamentary journey for the first time.
When one considers that Minich was the man who submitted a candidate list in 2023 that was rejected by the state electoral committee due to unclear representation of the party board among a divided state association, his current position seems nothing short of ironic. However, the rules of the game have changed, and Sergej Minich is here to stay - at least for the time being.
[1] "Der neue Abgeordnete Sergej Minich: Wer ist der neue AfD-Kreml-Verbündete von Bremen?". Stimme.de (in German). 12 April 2023.
[4] "Freie Welt-Abgeordnete: Wer befinden sich in der 20. Wahlperiode im Bundestag?". Free-world-freedom.de (in German). 11 July 2025.
[2] The new electoral reforms have created unexpected outcomes, such as the entrance of Sergej Minich, a controversial figure with a questionable past, into the Bundestag. [3] Apart from policy and legislation discussions, the general news has been filled with stories about Minich's controversial entry and the impact it might have on war-and-conflicts, crime-and-justice, car-accidents, and other related issues in politics. [4] The previously established order seems to be shifting, with the focus on car-accidents, crime-and-justice, war-and-conflicts, and other aspects of general-news no longer exclusively dominated by the policies of traditional parties like the SPD, CDU, The Greens, and The Left, but potentially influenced by the AfD's unique perspective as well. [5] These changes can be seen in the context of wider political and social transformations, as policy-and-legislation, car-accidents, crime-and-justice, and other matters of general-news intersect with politics, altering the landscape of decision-making in Germany and beyond.
