Péter Vida, who is running for the Free Voters, missed out on a direct mandate in the Brandenburg state election – which means that the BVB/Free Voters are no longer represented in the state parliament. According to the state election commission, the 40-year-old received 23.9 percent of the first votes; five years ago, the lawyer received 24.0 percent of the first votes and won the constituency. The winner in the constituency in this election was Steffen John of the AfD with 26.3 percent of the votes, ahead of Martina Maxi Schmidt with 24.1 percent of the SPD.
In 2019, the BVB/Free Voters group entered the state parliament with 5.0 percent. In this year’s election, it is likely to fail to clear the five percent hurdle and had hoped for Vida’s direct mandate.
Vida: Air is getting thin for the little ones
Vida was disappointed by the loss of votes: For small parties, the focus on the AfD and SPD was crucial, he told rbb. It became clear that there was not only a political escalation, but also a mathematical one. “At around 30 percent for both, the air gets thin for the small parties,” said Vida. “That had a merciless impact.”
The Brandenburg electoral law provides for a basic mandate clause, which states that a party is taken into account in the distribution of seats according to its share of second votes if it has won at least one direct mandate. In Saxony there is a similar regulation, from which the Left Party benefited in the state election on September 1st, but there two direct mandates must be won.
Vida has Hungarian roots and was born in Schwedt. He lives in Bernau in the Barnim district and is a member of the city parliament and the district council.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240922-930-240246/1
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