Overview

• AfD candidates failed to win the three high-profile mayoral runoffs in Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen and Hagen, easing fears of immediate far-right breakthroughs.
• CDU advances included Dortmund, where Alexander Kalouti defeated SPD incumbent Thomas Westphal with 52.92 percent, ending nearly eight decades of uninterrupted SPD leadership.
• SPD recaptured Cologne with Torsten Burmester and now holds the most mayoralties statewide, with additional wins or holds in Oberhausen, Mülheim, Bochum and Wuppertal.
• The Greens recorded uneven results, losing Bonn and Aachen yet winning Münster for the first time with candidate Tilman Fuchs.
• Party debriefs are underway, with Friedrich Merz set to join an NRW CDU board meeting with Hendrik Wüst in Düsseldorf as SPD leaders conduct their own review and analysts urge responses to local grievances that boosted the AfD earlier.