Overview

• Preliminary results show Alexander Omar Kalouti defeating incumbent Thomas Westphal in Dortmund with 52.92 percent, ending nearly eight decades of SPD mayors.
• Torsten Burmester returns Cologne to SPD leadership with about 53.5 percent, and Tilman Fuchs wins Münster with roughly 57.9 percent to become the city’s first Green mayor.
• AfD bids for mayoralties collapsed in all three runoffs: Sören Link won Duisburg 78.6 percent to 21.4 percent, Andrea Henze took Gelsenkirchen 66.9 percent to 33.1 percent, and Dennis Rehbein prevailed in Hagen with 71.7 percent.
• CDU leaders claim momentum after holding Düsseldorf and Essen and flipping Aachen, Bonn, Bielefeld and Leverkusen, while SPD notes mixed results but says it still leads statewide with 13 mayors.
• Parties open post-election reviews today, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz attending the CDU state board in Düsseldorf, and razor-thin margins in Datteln (decided by three votes) and Siegen (by ten) could prompt recounts.