Overview

• Party delegates endorsed Mark Rackles with 92.5% and Eva Högl with 89.5% at the Bremen SPD congress.
• Rackles is scheduled for election in the Bremische Bürgerschaft in October, with Högl’s vote planned for December.
• Rackles served as Berlin’s education state secretary from 2011 to 2019 and led the capital’s school construction taskforce as well as roles in the Kultusministerkonferenz.
• Bremen sits at the bottom of national education rankings and has the highest school‑dropout rate, which the party frames as the mandate for Rackles to address.
• If confirmed, Högl would be the first woman to lead Bremen’s interior ministry, succeeding Ulrich Mäurer at year’s end after a tenure that included serving as the Bundestag’s military ombudsperson until May 2025.