Overview

• Alexander Omar Kalouti (CDU) won Dortmund with 52.9%, ending the SPD’s uninterrupted control of the mayor’s office since 1946.
• AfD candidates failed in all high‑profile contests, losing clearly in Gelsenkirchen (33.1%), Duisburg (21.4%) and Hagen (28.3%).
• SPD secured Cologne with Torsten Burmester (~53.5%) and held Duisburg with Sören Link (78.6%), kept Bochum as Jörg Lukat won 64.7%, and gained Oberhausen and Wuppertal.
• The Greens won Münster as Tilman Fuchs took 57.9% but lost previously held Bonn and Aachen to the CDU.
• CDU consolidated elsewhere by defending Düsseldorf and Essen and winning Bielefeld, adding to gains that shift local governing math across NRW.