“Dirty methods” before the Berlin election: Are Kreuzberg’s Greens doing like Donald Trump?

The atmosphere is tense in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg . A good year before the elections to the Berlin House of Representatives and the district councils, there is a dispute over the redrawing of electoral districts. The accusation is that the Greens are trying to gain an advantage in next year's elections. And: They are using "dirty methods" to do so, according to critics. Just like US President Donald Trump.

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is, along with Mitte, the only Berlin district that stretches virtually across the border from east to west. This has been reflected in the voting behavior of its residents until recently. While in Friedrichshain, the Left Party, as the successor to the SED, has consistently achieved good results, in Kreuzberg, the Green Party has been the dominant party for decades.

Most recently, the Greens were clear winners in the merged district. In the 2021 election and the repeat in 2023, they won five of six constituencies. Only Damiano Valgolio of the Left Party held his own: He won constituency 4, which covers western Friedrichshain around Karl-Marx-Allee but ends at the Spree River, the quasi-natural border between the two old districts in the east and west. He even narrowly defeated the biggest name in local politics, former mayor Monika Herrmann of the Greens, twice.

Her party colleague and successor, Clara Herrmann—no relation or marriage—is now causing a scandal. For next year's election, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, whose population is stagnating, will have to cede one constituency to its booming neighbor Treptow-Köpenick: six constituencies will be reduced to five. This means that all constituencies will be redrawn so that they all have roughly the same number of eligible voters.

Several versions circulated, one of which was put forward by the city councilor responsible for this matter, Regina Sommer-Wetter of the Left Party, who would have kept constituency 4 entirely within Friedrichshain. In the end, the Greens in the district office – Mayor Herrmann's vote counts double in the event of a tie – overruled this and voted to expand constituency 4 across the Spree River and deep into Kreuzberg. The deciding vote was Clara Herrmann's.

Since then, representatives of the Left Party, the SPD, and the CDU have been up in arms. The suspicion is that the Greens want to use this redrawing, the westernization of the former eastern district, to increase their own chances in the constituency – and worsen those of the Left Party.

The nasty term "gerrymandering" is often used in this context. This is a practice of redrawing the country, common in the United States for two centuries, solely for the purpose of increasing one's own electoral chances. In recent years, Donald Trump's Republicans have been particularly prominent in this area, much to the displeasure of the Democrats and their sympathetic politicians and parties from Europe.

The outrage is particularly intense at the moment. Last week, more than 50 Democratic representatives from Texas flew to Illinois and New York – and remain there to this day. By fleeing their home state, they intend to prevent a parliamentary vote on redistricting – the outcome is open to question.

In Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, given the current situation, even fleeing wouldn't help. The next steps are as follows: After the district office—which, thanks to the mayor's double vote, is largely Green—has passed the resolution, the district council—without a Green majority—will take note of the decision. In other words: The matter is over.

So are the Kreuzberg Greens now acting like Donald Trump? That would be a blatant accusation, especially since the Left Party and the SPD have entered into cooperation agreements with the Greens that helped Clara Herrmann get into office. Berlin's Left Party leader Kerstin Wolter, whose political home is Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, asked rhetorically in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung: "How else are we supposed to perceive this other than that someone here is determined to get something done at all costs?" She is "extremely irritated" and is now "worried that this behavior will spill over into other issues."

Donald Trump expects the current gerrymandering in Texas to give him five additional seats in the future – without receiving a single additional vote. The term "gerrymandering" dates back to 1812 and is a portmanteau of the names "Gerry" and "salamander." At that time, Elbridge Gerry, Governor of Massachusetts, signed a law redrawing his state's Senate districts. The new boundaries favored his party, the Republicans. One of these districts was—as a cartoonist mockingly noted at the time—shaped like a salamander.

Whether the Greens' plan for constituency 4 in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg will ultimately pay off remains to be seen. After all, the Left Party is on a roll in the district, which has long been a Green stronghold. In the 2025 federal election, it became the strongest party for the first time in living memory. It's possible that even small, dirty tricks won't help next year. Left Party leader Wolter appears relaxed: "We definitely want to become the strongest party, and we want to win a direct constituency in Kreuzberg for the first time."