“A dream broke”

Michael Sacher sits in front of the Parliamentary Society and looks at the Reichstag building. A few employees come down the stone stairs, while tourists from the capital stroll on the forecourt during the autumn holidays and take photos. Sacher somehow belongs to both groups. Or none. “I have to find my role again first,” he says, looking sadly at the Bundestag. It is his third visit since the federal election four weeks ago and at the same time his farewell to political Berlin.

Michael Sacher was one of 118 members of the Green parliamentary group for three weeks. The 57-year-old bookseller from Unna entered the Bundestag for the first time via the state list from North Rhine-Westphalia. The joy was great, as was the excitement. The first parliamentary group meetings, getting to know the other MPs, the first job interviews for his office. He wanted to make cultural politics his subject.

But last week the bad news from the federal returning officer. According to the official final result, Sacher is out again. 1,587,067 votes for the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia are not enough. He lacks less than 200 votes in the entire state.

“I’ve had a tough few days”

It sounds like a bad novel, only that he doesn’t know one of those, says the bookseller a few days later over a mélange in Café Einstein Unter den Linden. Directly opposite is the Otto-Wels-Haus, where he probably would have got his Bundestag office. Conjunctive. Now he’s back in Berlin to hand in his laptop to the Bundestag administration and to say goodbye to a few party friends. “I had a few difficult days,” says Sacher.

When he got the list in mid-April, he was “more than certain” that it would be enough for the Bundestag. The Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia would have needed 17 percent for his seat to move. In the list, the Greens are stable at over 20 percent, later almost 30. But the polls with Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock could not hold the Greens. He does not want to blame her, especially at the end of the election campaign, she performed strongly. “There was a strong campaign against Annalena Baerbock as a woman.”

Already the election evening will be a rollercoaster ride for Sacher. At first it looks good for him, but with every extrapolation the bar of the Greens decreases and with it Sacher’s chances decrease. When he went to bed at one o’clock, he was sure that he had failed, Sacher recalls. But when he wakes up a few hours later, he finds a congratulation on the cell phone. Sacher thinks of a mistake, but more and more text messages arrive. He informs himself on the website of the Federal Returning Officer. “I only believed it when a parliamentary group colleague from Unna, who is also a lawyer, congratulated me.” It’s half past seven and Sacher quickly packs his things, books a ticket and gets on the train to Berlin. “That went holterdiepolter.”

In Berlin he got a first glimpse into the new profession. Getting to know the parliamentary group in the House of World Cultures, the next morning the first parliamentary group meeting of the Greens – for pandemic reasons in the plenum of the Bundestag. “That was very impressive.” He receives his provisional Bundestag ID, his Bahncard, and a laptop. “It was a bit like an introductory week.”

The first reports are on Twitter

But at the same time, the first messages appear on Twitter that something could happen again. In recounts in a Munich constituency and in Bad Tölz, a few dozen votes were found for the Greens. This could change the Green Square from North Rhine-Westphalia to Bavaria. Sacher reads the tweets, but initially pays little attention to them. He does not receive any information about this from the Federal Returning Officer.

A few hundred kilometers further, in Dachau in Bavaria, Beate Walter-Rosenheimer also reads the tweets from this unknown and unofficial account. After two legislative periods, it was no longer enough for the youth policy spokeswoman for the Greens in 19th place on the list. “I advised my employees to look around,” she says on the phone. The boxes in her office were already packed and mothballed.

“That was my low point”

But then last Monday the Bavarian State Returning Officer announced the official election result and in Dachau and Unna it seemed clear – the mandate would change. However, there is still no official confirmation from the Federal Returning Officer. Michael Sacher and Beate Walter-Rosenheimer hang in the air the whole week. “That was my low point,” says Sacher. He retired, avoided the bookstore and the streets of Unna. He didn’t feel like sending out false congratulations. When the Federal Returning Officer finally announced the official final result on Friday, Sacher was certain and was the first to congratulate Walter-Rosenheimer. Later he said goodbye to his short-term colleagues in a digital parliamentary group meeting. Just a few words and it’s all over. It is the day on which the traffic light exploratory paper is presented. The Greens will probably join the government, but Sacher is out.

“It’s totally mean to him. A dream broke, ”says Beate Walter-Rosenheimer, who is now unexpectedly busy. At least her office manager was able to keep her. The 56-year-old can understand Sacher’s feelings. In the 2009 election, she went to bed with a feeling of security in the evening, but the next day the compensation mandate switched to the FDP again. Beate Walter-Rosenheimer did not make it into the Bundestag. It wasn’t until 2012 that she finally moved up.

Sacher is ready to replace him

Michael Sacher is now also hoping for that. “I wish all members of parliament just good reasons to leave the Bundestag.” A lot happens in the first year in particular, and dissatisfaction could arise. His chances are high, after all, his regional association with 27 MPs is the largest in the parliamentary group. “It’s a difficult situation because I can’t say whether I’m going to move up in a month, a year, or not at all,” he says. After all, he could now read more and prepare for the Christmas business in the bookstore. Sacher tries to look ahead, but repeatedly experiences small pinpricks. He was taken down again from the e-mail distribution lists, yesterday he was thrown from the Whatsapp group of the parliamentary group. Painful but right. “Being able to get a taste of it made it particularly nasty,” says Sacher.

He doesn’t seem bitter. Other candidates would be kicked out on election night, so nobody would report, he says. „I am really happy to live in a country where you can rely on the election results. ”Although he would have benefited if the preliminary result had not been checked again, it would not have been the correct result. “We stand there on a secure and stable democratic foundation.”