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Samet Yilmaz, the Green Party candidate, won the mayoral election in Kiel, becoming the first Turkish-origin mayor of the Schleswig-Holstein state capital after securing 54.1% of the vote in the second round.
Yilmaz defeated independent candidate Gerrit Derkowski, who was backed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP), and received 45.9% of the vote, according to preliminary official results.
Three weeks earlier, Derkowski had led the first round.
The election marks the first time the Greens have won the Kiel mayoralty.
Outgoing Mayor Ulf Kämpfer of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) did not seek re-election after two terms.
Voter turnout in the runoff was 43.5%, down from 48.7% in the first round. Kiel has 190,779 registered voters.
Addressing supporters after the results, Yilmaz said voters had entrusted him with “a clear mandate.”
“We have been given a task so this city can move boldly into the future. I accept this responsibility with determination,” he said.
Yilmaz, 44, will assume office in April.
A Kiel native born in 1981, he serves in the Schleswig-Holstein Interior Ministry and co-chairs the Green group in the City Council.
He promised to be “the mayor of all residents,” adding that his vision includes a modern, socially inclusive and environmentally conscious city.
Yilmaz was raised in Kiel and is originally from a family with roots in Erzurum, Türkiye.
He studied political science, Islamic studies and public law at Kiel’s Christian-Albrechts University, completing a master’s thesis on Türkiye’s policy toward Israel.
He later conducted research and training in Palestine, Jerusalem, and Yemen and worked in the Bremen Interior Ministry before joining the Schleswig-Holstein Interior Ministry in 2011.
His academic work covers Turkish foreign and security policy, political Islam in Germany, and Middle Eastern security issues.
Yilmaz becomes Germany’s second major-city mayor of Turkish descent after Belit Onay, also from the Green Party, who was elected mayor of Hannover in 2019.
Kiel, a university city with a population of around 250,000, has long been a stronghold for the Greens, though the mayoralty had previously alternated between the SPD and CDU.
Yilmaz’s victory also places a Green politician at the helm of the city for the first time, although party member Peter Todeskino previously held the office on an interim basis without election.
The election marks a milestone for representation in Germany as well as a significant local victory for the Greens in a key northern city.
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