首都ベルリン（州と同格）などドイツの２州で17日、議会選挙が行われた。ベルリン市は社会民主党（SPD）の勝利。つまり現市長クラウス・ヴォーベレイト（ウォーウェライト、Klaus Wowereit）氏の政権は承認された。ヴォーベレイト氏は同性愛であることを公言している政治家だ。
Berlin Gay Mayor Swept Back Into Office [365Gay.com]
Berlin's openly gay mayor had little difficult retaining office Sunday. Klaus Wowereit and the Social Democrats won 31.4 percent of the vote, ensuring the party will remain in control.
The win is credited directly to Wowereit. Under the Social Democrats both unemployment and the city's debt have skyrocketed. The jobless rate in Berlin is move 17 percent and the city owes nearly $70 billion.
Nevertheless, Wowereit's personal popularity has remained high.
Going into this weekend's election almost 60 percent of Berliners in a recent poll said they supported Wowereit as mayor, while just over 20 per cent backed conservative candidate, Friedbert Pflueger.
ＳＰＤは31.4％の支持を獲得。世論調査によると、60％のベルリン市民がヴォーベレイト氏を支持、キリスト教民主同盟（ＣＤＵ）の候補者の20％を大きく引き離した。
一方、今回の地方選では、メルケル連邦首相の選挙区のある旧東独北部のメクレンブルク・フォアポンメルン州で、極右政党ドイツ国家民主党（NPD）が議席を獲得した。ＮＰＤは議席獲得に必要な5％を上回る7.3％の支持を得、総議席71中6議席を手に入れる見通し。同州では失業率が18％とドイツで最も高く、不満を持つ若者らが極端な反移民政策を掲げるネオナチ政党へ投票したと見られる。
「非常に残念なこと（extraordinarily regrettable）」と、メルケル首相は選挙結果について語った。
Poll boost for German far right [BBC NEWS]
The National Democratic Party (NPD) won 7.3% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, surpassing the 5% needed to enter the state parliament.
Germany's previous government compared the NPD to the early Nazi party.
In Berlin, waning support had Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrat party trailing the Social Democrats.
The re-election of Klaus Wowereit as mayor of the German capital had been predicted, and following the result Mr Wowereit said he would hold talks with both the ex-communists and the resurgent Greens on forming a coalition.
ベルリンではＮＤＰの議席獲得は阻止された。が、首都の財政状態や失業率は悪化しており、ＳＰＤの勝利はヴォーベレイト氏の個人的人気によるものが大きいのではないかと看做されている。
Far-Right Enter Fourth German State Legislature [Deutsche Welle]
On the other hand, the NPD have not been able to make inroads in Berlin. Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who wrested power from the conservatives in 2001, remains enormously popular, despite high unemployment and the city's enormous debt of 58 billion euros ($73 billion).
Once asked about the disastrous state of Berlin's finances, Wowi, as he is affectionately called by his supporters, memorably declared: 'Berlin may be poor. But it's sexy.'
Yesterday, Wowereit told cheering supporters, "I am happy that the people of Berlin have voted in favor of democracy and did not elect the NPD into the state's parliament."
また連立の「組み換え」も議論に挙がっている。ベルリンはＳＰＤと「左派政党」（Left Party）の「赤・赤」（red-red coalition）の連立。左派政党は旧共産党系の議員やSPD 左派の脱退組（leftist SPD defectors）から構成されている。ここに「緑の党」（Greens）を加えた三党連立、「赤・赤・緑」（red-red-green coalition）の可能性が出てきた。緑の党は改選前と比べ支持率4％の上昇。一方、左派政党は22.6％から 13.4へと大きくダウンした。*1
365Gay.com の記事では、不振のＳＰＤの救世主としてヴォーベレイト氏のリーダーシップが期待されている、とある。そして彼がドイツで最初のゲイの首相（chancellor）になるかもしれないと。
While his popularity gained strength in Berlin the Social Democrats have dropped nationally and lost the chancelorship. Many now within the party are looking at Wowereit as a future leader.
Wowereit is seen as a consensus builder who can unite the various factions of German politics.
Of his ambitions for the future he's playing his cards close to the vest, but acknowledged in a recent interview in the news magazine Stern that "I would like to have more say than I have had in the last five years."
But if he does have his sites on federal politics he'll have to wait until party leader Kurt Beck, who has little public recognition, bows out or is pushed out.
If he were to become chancellor it would make Wowereit the fist openly gay man to lead a country in modern times.
[Klaus Wowereit]
*1:「Die Wahlergebnisse in Berlin im Überblick」（SPIEGEL）
