Post photo: Pixabay
Currently, most of us are dealing with the consequences of the countermeasures and some are directly concerned with the consequences of COVID-19; some of us are even actively involved in healthcare as we strive to finally get the pandemic under control. The majority of our population is meanwhile fully occupied with getting a vaccination so that we can go back to the restaurants or plan our next vacation.
The upcoming federal election, in which we will elect the 26th German Bundestag on Sunday, September 2021, 20, is easily forgotten. We still have 18 weeks to get to know the election manifestos of the competing parties and groups of voters as well as the respective candidates in our constituency.
As a first step I recommend the official website for the federal election 2021. There you will already find the first election programs — I assume that most parties will present one in the next few weeks — and the parties taking part in the election, as well as their top candidates.
The complete list of all parties taking part in this year's Bundestag elections will be announced by the Federal Returning Officer by July 7, 2021 at the latest, after which there are just under 11 weeks until the election.
In the last federal election, we had a nationwide voter turnout of 76,2%, which can be seen as a good result. Now I hope that the parties and their candidates will slowly gain momentum and that other political organizations will also start to promote a good voter turnout.
It is remarkable that the current Bundestag elections will cost us citizens a good 100 million euros and that we also spend more than one billion euros a year on our Bundestag. These sums alone justify our taking a closer look at this election in September 2021.
The Heilbronn federal electoral district has the number 267 and has a population of around 350, of whom around 000 are eligible to vote. In the 250 federal election, 000% of those eligible to vote actually voted, which was slightly above the national average.
Directly elected in 2017 Alexander Trom (CDU), who entered the Bundestag for the first time with a vote share of 35,3%.
Josip Juratovic (SPD) managed, after a very long night, to get back into the Bundestag with 23,2%, of which he has been a member continuously since 2005.
Also Michael George Link (FDP) made it back into the Bundestag with 9,6%, of which he was already a member from 2005 to 2013.
What was extremely unpleasant was that a right-wing extremist party, at least in Heilbronn, which, among other things, instead of observing the day of remembrance, officially paid tribute to the Nazi hero via a Facebook post by its local council faction. Albert Leo Schlageter remember that with 15,6% of the vote for a man who was completely unknown to me, he was able to send a woman of the same name to the Bundestag.
As far as I know, numerous parties and candidates will also be standing in Heilbronn for the upcoming federal elections in 2021, and I know for sure that the FDP will be there again Michael George Link will compete. Even Josip Juratovic has thrown his hat in the ring again, struggling with the SPD demoting him to a less successful list spot. And also the Heilbronner directly elected member of parliament from 2017, Alexander Trom, will run again for the Bundestag with 96% support from his party.
Now I'm curious to see which other parties and groups of voters with which candidates will also announce their candidacy in the coming weeks.
But I'm even more excited to see what ideas and suggestions our Heilbronn candidates will use to promote their election.
Hopefully the whole thing doesn't get lost in our holiday preparations!
“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry."
George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical (2019 [1866]: 73
