Overview

• Die Linke’s Potsdam branch said it will not recommend either Noosha Aubel or Severin Fischer, citing programmatic gaps with both after meetings with the candidates.
• The SPD circulated a Bürgerbrief signed by ex-mayors Matthias Platzeck and Jann Jakobs endorsing Fischer and warning against what they called green experiments linked to Aubel.
• The Linke criticized the letter as culture-war framing that casts climate policy as an elites’ project and said it made any endorsement impossible.
• The CDU also declined to issue a recommendation for the runoff, saying the choice now rests with voters after its own candidate was eliminated.
• First-round results put Aubel at about 34 percent and Fischer near 17 percent, and the campaign has grown sharper, drawing public rebukes and a denial from Fischer that he is using right-populist narratives.