Overview

• Official results confirm Alexander Kalouti (CDU) won Dortmund with about 52.9 percent, ending nearly 80 years of SPD control.
• Torsten Burmester (SPD) captured Cologne with 53.5 percent, while Tilman Fuchs (Greens) won Münster with roughly 57.9 percent.
• CDU incumbents held Düsseldorf (Stephan Keller ~60 percent) and Essen (Thomas Kufen ~57 percent) and gained posts in cities including Bonn, Aachen, Bielefeld and Leverkusen, according to party and media tallies.
• AfD failed to win any of its three mayoral runoffs—losing decisively in Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen to the SPD and in Hagen to the CDU—leaving the party without a city hall in NRW.
• Several races were razor-thin, notably Datteln decided by three votes and Siegen by ten, as CDU leaders meet in Düsseldorf and the SPD convenes a digital board session to assess the outcomes.