His election was considered a formality. Martin Hikel has been mayor of Berlin-Neukölln for almost eight years. His attitude is firm, his politics pragmatic. Someone the SPD may continue to need. But at a meeting of district delegates on Saturday, SPD members surprisingly chastised him: only 68.5 percent voted for him as mayoral candidate in the September 2026 elections. Too few, Hikel said. He did not accept the election.
“I firmly believe that we can be successful next year if we close,” said Hikel, who currently serves as co-leader of SPD Berlin alongside Nicola Böcker-Giannini. BZ as justification. The results show that this unity does not exist – and that it has little support for a successful election campaign. “I cannot be your main candidate in this form.” The meeting was then canceled at short notice.
The Neukölln district of Hikel is considered a clan stronghold
According to the report, the Hikel discussion was initiated by left-wing parties and Jusos. They therefore accused Hikel of taking too much action against the clan’s crimes and too much publicity. His predecessors Heinz Buschkowsky and Franziska Giffey had already taken tough action against clan crime – and SPD leader Bärbel Bas recently announced tougher measures against “mafia structures” and “clan leaders” if they defraud the welfare state for the benefit of citizens.
Hikel is known to have been seen storming a shisha bar in Berlin-Neukölln. He also repeatedly tried to work with Muslims to combat Islamist tendencies, extremism and anti-Semitism. His district of about 330,000 people is considered a clan stronghold, and pro-Gaza/Hamas demonstrations often occur there with a large police presence. Another charge from his critics: Hikel refuses to use the term “anti-Muslim racism.”
Disputes over the direction of the SPD will eventually escalate
According to information from the party, South German Newspaper stressed that because of such results you don’t need to stop running anymore – almost 70 percent is still quite good by Neukölln standards. It is unclear who should run for office in Berlin-Neukölln besides Hikel. The SPD now has only two of the twelve mayors in the capital. In surveys for next year’s parallel House of Representatives elections, the party was beaten by the left and is now only slightly ahead of the AfD and the Greens; The CDU is in first place.
But instead of coming together, disagreements over direction only escalated. Former Mayor and Economic Affairs Senator Franziska Giffey was recently left off the list, which is why her future is unclear. He regretted Hikel’s actions. “This is not a good development for the SPD. I hope that a good way to deal with this new, unexpected situation can now be found quickly,” said Giffey.
For the SPD’s main candidate for the post of mayor, Steffen Krach, who is also considered a pragmatist, this task will not be easy. He is currently president of the Hanover area and is considered a great talent. But he has a party behind him – or beside him – that tends to be left-leaning. Pragmatic politicians are sidelined. Similar things can be seen in other SPD associations, for example in Bavaria.
“The SPD in Neukölln actually heard no gunshots.”
Hikel was previously humiliated at the SPD’s federal party conference in late June. In his application for a place on the party’s executive committee, he obtained 102 votes, the worst result of any candidate and subsequently withdrew his candidacy. In SPD Neukölln, Bundestag member Hakan Demir, who comes from the left wing, has recently gained influence. In 2021, he won the Bundestag nomination against former Secretary of State for Culture Tim Renner, who was Franziska Giffey and Martin Hikel’s preferred candidate at the time.
Former Neukölln Bundestag member Fritz Felgentreu said of Hikel’s dissolution: “The Neukölln SPD is currently uncontrollable, at least not for policies capable of gaining a social majority.” There was also sharp criticism from other parts of the party. Former Bundestag member Michael Roth said it was definitely the left that took consistent action against clan crime, drug trafficking and anti-Semitism. On the other hand, trivializing the violence of certain groups is “dirty”.
Local SPD Essen politician Ali Kaan Sevenic said in relation to the events in Neukölln and the results of his own survey: “Our people at the scene in Neukölln really did not hear any gunshots.” It is the right thing to do to crack down on clans, punish criminals according to the rule of law and, if possible, deport them.
After the scandal surrounding Hikel’s opposition to the elections, the SPD district executives discussed. It was later said that they wanted to find a new applicant for the mayor’s post in the next few weeks. SPD district chairman Joachim Rahmann said on Sunday evening that he was confident the top candidate would be elected by the end of the year. He also emphasized: “The state-level teams and programs are ready.”
