2026 Bavarian local elections

2026 Bavarian local elections

←  2020 8 March 2026
5,542 district council seats
Turnout	6,441,918 (63.44%) 4.77%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Markus Söder Stephan Protschka Hubert Aiwanger Party CSU AfD FW Last election 1,938 seats, 34.47% 262 seats, 4.75% 694 seats, 11.90% Seats won 1,817 711 711 Seat change 121 449 17 Popular vote 2,030,112 763,040 755,086 Percentage 32.54% 12.23% 12.10% Swing 1.93% 7.48% 0.20%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Gisela Sengl & Eva Lettenbauer Ronja Endres & Sebastian Roloff None Party Greens SPD Local voters' associations Last election 880 seats, 17.46% 738 seats, 13.68% 560 seats, 8.66% Seats won 666 665 520 Seat change 214 73 40 Popular vote 848,443 764,799 512,601 Percentage 13.60% 12.26% 8.22% Swing 3.86% 1.42% 0.44%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Sarah Vollath & Martin Bauhof Agnes Becker & Tobias Ruff Michael Ruoff Party Linke ÖDP FDP Last election 77 seats, 1.66% 187 seats, 3.42% 161 seats, 2.94% Seats won 164 131 113 Seat change 87 56 48 Popular vote 213,484 145,438 129,778 Percentage 3.42% 2.33% 2.08% Swing 1.76% 1.09% 0.86%

The 2026 Bavarian local elections were held on March 8, 2026 to elect members of Bavaria's 71 district councils and 25 independent city councils.

Results

The historically dominant Christian Social Union (CSU) placed first, albeit with a reduction in seats and vote share. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) placed second with more than double the votes and seats they received in the 2020 election. The Greens experienced the largest decline of any party, losing over 200 seats. ^[1]

A number of small parties also won seats. Volt won a number of seats, largely concentrated in urban areas including Munich, Nuremberg, and Bamberg. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), participated for the first time since its founding in 2024, winning two seats; one in Coburg and one in Kaufbeuren. ^{[2] [3]} Small conservative parties The Republicans and the Bavaria Party both lost seats, and were mostly successful in rural regions. ^[1]

Summary of results for the 2026 Bavarian local elections

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	2,030,112	32.54	1.93	1,817	121
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	763,040	12.23	7.48	711	449
	Free Voters (FW)	755,086	12.10	0.20	711	17
	The Greens (Grüne)	848,443	13.60	3.86	666	214
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	764,799	12.26	1.42	665	73
	Local voters' associations	512,601	8.22	0.44	520	40
	Die Linke	213,484	3.42	1.76	164	87
	Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)	145,438	2.33	1.09	131	56
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	129,778	2.08	0.86	113	48
	Bavaria Party (BP)	17,549	0.28	0.23	15	14
	Die PARTEI	6,590	0.11	0.13	2	4
	Other parties [a]	52,637	0.84	0.52	27	17
Total		6,239,557			5,542
Invalid votes		202,361
Voter turnout		6,441,918	63.44	3.44
Eligible voters		10,153,961

1. Including Volt, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, Pirate Party and The Republicans

Mayoral results

Lord Mayors were also elected in the 25 county-free (kreisfreie) cities. If no candidate received over 50% of the vote, a run-off election between the two leading candidates took place on March 22. Below are the results for the four largest cities in Bavaria.

Munich

2026 Munich mayoral election ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes (First round)	%	Votes (Second round)	%	+/-
	The Greens	Dominik Krause	168,010	29.5	272,533	56.4	26.9
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	Dieter Reiter	203,113	35.6	211,075	43.6	8.0
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	Clemens Baumgärtner	121,713	21.3
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	Markus Walbrunn	25,046	4.4
	Die Linke	Stefan Jagel	13,770	2.4
	Free Voters (FW)	Michael Piazolo	10,624	1.9
	Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)	Tobias Ruff	7,882	1.4
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	Jörg Hoffmann	6,983	1.2
	Volt	Felix Sproll	6,117	1.1
	Culture Alliance	Christiane Pfau	2,002	0.4
	Die PARTEI	Philipp Drabinski	1,980	0.3
	Munich List	Dirk Höpner	1,703	0.3
	Bavaria Party	Richard Progl	1,285	0.2
Total			570,228	99.6	483,608	99.5	0.1
Invalid votes			2,472	0.4	2,615	0.5	0.1
Voter turnout			572,700	52.3	486,223	44.5	7.8
Eligible voters			1,094,793		1,092,531

Nuremberg

2026 Nuremberg mayoral election ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes (First round)	%	Votes (Second round)	%	+/-
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	Marcus König	88,889	46.0	85,751	55.5	9.5
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	Nasser Ahmed	51,198	26.5	68,822	44.5	18.0
	The Greens	Britta Walthelm	20,065	10.4
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	Roland-Alexander Hübscher	17,551	9.1
	Die Linke	Titus Schüller	7,083	3.7
	Free Voters (FW)	Thomas Estrada	4,849	2.5
	Left List Nuremberg	Marion Padua	1,501	0.8
	Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)	Jan Gehrke	1,197	0.6
	Die Guten	Christiane Schleindl	938	0.5
Total			193,271	99.5	154.573	99.5
Invalid votes			1,068	0.5	750	0.5
Voter turnout			193,271	51.2	155,323	41.1	10.1
Eligible voters			379,322		378,289

Augsburg

2026 Augsburg mayoral election ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes (First round)	%	Votes (Second round)	%	+/-
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	Florian Freund	21,834	19.9	44,077	56.6	36.7
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	Eva Weber	37,212	34.0	33,823	43.4	9.4
	The Greens	Martina Wild	17,937	16.4
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	Andreas Jurca	13,639	12.4
	Free Voters (FW)	Hannes Aigner	7,197	6.6
	Die Linke	Elisabeth Wiesholler	5,521	5.0
	Augsburg in Bürgerhand	Bruno Marcon	2,112	1.9
	Die PARTEI	Lisa McQueen	1,876	1.7
	V-Partei3	Roland Wegner	619	0.6
Total			109,569	99.5	77,900	99.3	0.2
Invalid votes			587	0.5	520	0.7	0.2
Voter turnout			110,156	51.8	78,420	37.0	14.8
Eligible voters			212,515		212,027

Regensburg

2026 Regensburg mayoral election ^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes (First round)	%	Votes (Second round)	%	+/-
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	Thomas Burger	12,774	19.1	28,629	53.2	34.1
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	Astrid Freudenstein	25,068	37.5	25,138	46.8	9.4
	The Greens	Helene Sigloch	12,637	18.9
	Bridge	Thomas Thurow	4,300	6.4
	Free Voters (FW)	Michael Schien	3,551	5.3
	Die Linke	Sebastian Wanner	2,560	3.8
	Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)	Benedikt Suttner	1,691	2.5
	Free Democratic Party	Horst Meierhofer	1,232	1.8
	Volt	Lisa Brenner	1,187	1.8
	Christian Social Citizens in Regensburg	Christian Janele	794	1.2
	Die PARTEI	Ingo Frank	545	0.8
	Ribisl Party	Jakob Friedl	536	0.8
Total			66,875	98.9	53,767	99.6	0.7
Invalid votes			717	1.1	189	0.4	0.7
Voter turnout			67,592	57.7	53,956	46.2	11.5
Eligible voters			117,094		116,778

References

1. "Kommunalwahlen 2026 Ergebnisse der Schnellmeldungen" (in German). Retrieved 2026-04-05.
2. "Kommunalwahlen 2026 - 463 Coburg, KfSt" (in German). Retrieved 2026-04-05.
3. "Kommunalwahlen 2026 - 762 Kaufbeuren, KfSt" (in German). Retrieved 2026-04-05.
4. "162000 München, KfSt. – Wahl zum Oberbürgermeister". Bavarian State Office for Statistics and Data. 2026-03-22. Retrieved 2026-04-06.
5. "564000 Nürnberg, KfSt. – Wahl zum Oberbürgermeister". Bavarian State Office for Statistics and Data. 2026-03-22. Retrieved 2026-04-06.
6. "761000 Augsburg, KfSt. – Wahl zum Oberbürgermeister". Bavarian State Office for Statistics and Data. 2026-03-22. Retrieved 2026-04-06.
7. "362000 Regensburg, KfSt. – Wahl zum Oberbürgermeister". Bavarian State Office for Statistics and Data. 2026-03-22. Retrieved 2026-04-06.