Overview

• Polls are open across North Rhine-Westphalia for mayoral and district-chief runoffs, with voting until 18:00 and counts expected this evening.
• AfD candidates reached second rounds in Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen and Hagen, raising the prospect of the party’s first Oberbürgermeister in western Germany.
• Duisburg: incumbent Sören Link (SPD) faces Carsten Groß (AfD) after 45.97% vs 19.71% in round one; Gelsenkirchen: Andrea Henze (SPD/Greens) vs Norbert Emmerich (AfD) after 37.04% vs 29.75%.
• Hagen: Dennis Rehbein (CDU) meets Michael Eiche (AfD) after 25.1% vs 21.2% in the first ballot, as CDU and SPD signal tactical voting to curb AfD gains.
• Cologne: Berivan Aymaz (Greens) runs against Torsten Burmester (SPD), with a Green win making Cologne the first German million-plus city led by the party; statewide in round one the CDU led with 33.3% as AfD rose to 14.5%.