Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I

Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I is an electoral constituency (German: Wahlkreis) represented in the German Bundestag. Part of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the constituency elects one representative under the mixed member proportional representation (MMP) system using first past the post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 15.

The constituency was created as part of the 2012 federal boundary review, which saw the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern lose one its 18 geographic constituencies as a result of population change. The constituency of Mecklenburg-Strelitz - Uecker-Randow was abolished, which in turn mandated changes to the boundaries of six nearby constituencies.^[1] Vorpommern-Rügen – I Vorpommern-Greifswald was created chiefly from the constituency of Stralsund – Nordvorpommern – Rügen, and took its district number of 15.

Members of the Bundestag

The constituency has been held since it was first contested in 2013 by the Christian Democratic Union's Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor since 2005. It is considered a safe seat for the CDU. Merkel had previously represented Stralsund – Nordvorpommern – Rügen for six consecutive terms from 1990 to 2013. In the 2009 federal election, Merkel won the seat on its old boundaries by 23 percentage points over her nearest opponent, but boundary changes reduced her notional margin of victory to 20%. However, in 2013, Merkel increased her majority to 37%.

Election results

2013 election

Merkel was re-elected to the Bundestag with an absolute majority when the constituency was first contested for the 2013 federal election, increasing her share of the vote by nearly 10%. Incumbent Bundestag list member for the SPD Sonja Steffen and Claudi Muller, chairman of the state Green Party, were among the eight candidates unsuccessfully tried to take the constituency from her. Her major opponent, Left Party candidate Karin Kassner, was elected to the Bundestag for the first time on statewide second votes despite a poor performance on first votes in the district. FDP candidate Gino Leonhard suffered a particularly humiliating defeat, dropping from fourth to seventh place since 2009 and finishing behind both the controversial Pirate Party and the far-right National Democratic Party.

The following table does not list parties which did not contest or gain constituency votes. Changes are relative to the notional 2009 result in the constituency.

Federal election 2013: Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I[2]
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	CDU	Y Angela Merkel		87,142	56.2%	+9.8%	69,682	45.0%	+8.5%
	Left	Karin Kassner		29,847	19.3%	−7.2%	31,931	20.6%	−7.4%
	SPD	Sonja Steffen		21,687	14.0%	+1.4%	22,629	14.6%	+1.7%
	Green	Claudia Müller		4,728	3.1%	−1.4%	7,372	4.8%	−0.9%
	NPD	Michael Andrejewski		3,968	2.6%	−0.2%	3,524	2.3%	−0.5%
	Pirates	Susanne Weist		3,738	2.4%	+2.4%	3,527	2.3%	−0.3%
	Independent	Michael Adomeit		1,388	0.9%	−0.3%	-	-
	FDP	Gino Leonhard		1,228	0.8%	−4.8%	4,068	2.6%	−8.5%
	Independent	Jürgen Dettmann		1,206	0.8%	N/A	-	-
Informal votes				2,459			2,417
Total Valid votes				154,932			154,974
Turnout				157,391	64.3%	+3.5%
	CDU hold		Majority	57,295	36.9%	+16.9%

Notional results of the 2009 election

The following table does not list parties which did not contest or gain constituency votes. These are the notional results of how the 2009 election would have gone if this constituency had been contested then instead of Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I; they should only be used to compare against the results of the 2013 election or to measure the impact of boundary changes.

Federal election 2009: Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I[3]
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	CDU	Y Angela Merkel		70,329	46.4%		55,282	36.5%
	Left	Marianne Linke		40,081	26.4%		33,522	28.0%
	SPD	Sonja Steffen		19,090	12.6%		19,591	12.9%
	FDP	Gino Leonhard		8,491	5.6%		16,798	11.1%
	Green	Arnold von Bosse		6,757	4.5%		8,550	5.6%
	NPD	Raimund Borrmann		4,115	2.7%		4,237	2.8%
	Others			2,718	1,8%		-	-
Informal votes				2,632			2,761
Total Valid votes				151,581			151,452
Turnout				154,213	60.8%
	CDU hold		Majority	30,248	20.0%

References