Local elections: More candidates than ever before! 11. April 202419. April 2024 Our state chairs Madeleine Linke and Dennis Helmich were able to present positive figures for the upcoming local elections to representatives of the press today. With a total of 472 candidates, more people than ever before are running on our party lists across the country. The proportion of women standing as candidates is 40.5 percent and has therefore increased once again compared to 2019.We are delighted that 131 of the 472 candidates are non-party members. This corresponds to a ratio of 72.2% members to 27.8% non-party members. “We have succeeded in winning over people without a party membership,” says our state chairwoman Madeleine Linke, commenting on the lists. “That may sound strange at first, because we are currently under fire. But these democracy demos, the Correctiv research and this impulse from many people to say, now I’m showing my face, now I’m taking a stand, has definitely had an impact.” The average age of the members running for office is 47.9%. Targets achieved Sufficient candidates were found for all district council elections and the three city council elections in the independent cities of Magdeburg, Halle (Saale) and Dessau. Dennis summarized this as follows: “For us, it is a good signal that we were able to grow even in challenging times.” In many regions, more people were found to stand as candidates this year than in 2019. These include Magdeburg (69 candidates), Halle (Saale) (65 candidates), the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld with 56 candidates and in Gardelegen and Bad Dürrenberg, 6 and 5 people respectively stood as candidates this year, while no one ran in 2019. We want to have a strong parliamentary group in all district councils and become the strongest political force in Magdeburg and Halle (Saale). The European and local elections in Saxony-Anhalt will take place on June 9, 2024.