Campaign of those, who defeated Angela Merkel (video)
Brexit, the referendum on the withdrawal of Great Britain from the European Union, may influence the local elections in Germany.
“Brexit was a good lesson also for our youth. Many young people didn’t take part in the referendum, but they have to live with the results of Brexit. If the young took part in the referendum, Great Britain may have remained a member of the European Union,” explains 46-year-old office worker Tanja Bunduls, who has been nominated by Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and on September 11 will take part in Hannover local elections.
The youth in Germany isn’t active in the elections. According to the statistics of the recent years, only 50 percent of voters take part in the elections.
Tanja Bunduls has been nominated for the second time for becoming a member of the City Council. It is a post on a voluntary basis.
“It is my free time. I want to use it for the sake of my city and welfare,” the candidate told Armenian journalists, who are in Hannover within the frames of “Cross-border observations: reliable coverage of local elections in Lower Saxony and Armenia” project, which was organized by Berlin’s School of Journalism together with “Journalists for Future” Armenian NGO.
But candidates of Social Democratic Party of Germany don’t propose projects for changes.
“I don’t want to change anything. I want to continue the direction, which was in the past,” says Chrsitine Ranke-Heck, who is taking part in the local elections in Lower Saxony.
It isn’t much surprising, as Mayor of Hannover, which is the administrative center of Lower Saxony, is just from that party. And though Mayor is a Social Democrat, some citizens refused to take pre-election booklets, which were distributed in the streets by the candidates of this party.
By the way, on September 11 there won’t be mayoral elections in Hannover. The current Mayor, who has been elected for 8 years’ term, will remain in office until 2021.
Nevertheless, candidates of Social Democratic Party of Germany don’t rule out unexpected outcome in the upcoming local elections in Lower Saxony: the voters are always unpredictable, in spite of the fact that on September 4 they defeated Angela Merkel’s party members in her homeland- Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state.
Social Democratic party received 30.5 percent of votes. “Alternative for Germany” party, which was established three years ago, was on the second place with 21 percent votes. The Christian Democratic Party lead by Angela Merkel received only 19 percent votes.
The reason for such a picture, according to the analysts, is the issue of refugees and the social-economic condition of the country. That’ s why September 11 local elections are considered to be a check before 2017 nationwide elections.
Karine Asatryan
Yerevan-Hannover-Yerevan
