The 2026 local elections in Bavaria, held on March 8th, marked one of the most significant municipal votes in the state in recent years. Thousands of councillors, mayors and district administrators were elected, many of whom will now shape local government for the next six years.
Many contests – particularly in the larger cities – remained unresolved and will go to runoff elections on March 22nd.
For residents in Bavaria, these elections will have palpable effects on everyday life. Local councils and mayors take decisions on education, transport, housing and environmental policy.
EU citizens aged 18 or over, who have lived and been registered in a Bavarian municipality for at least two months, were entitled to vote – and will be entitled to vote in the runoffs – even if they don’t hold German citizenship.
What was decided on Sunday?
Early analysis points to mixed fortunes for Bavaria’s main parties.
In many rural districts, results underlined the continued strength of established incumbents. The CSU performed particularly well outside the major cities, with near‑record results such as 95.2 percent for Frank Kunz in Dillingen an der Donau.
Other rural districts also produced clear first‑round victories, reinforcing the picture of political stability away from urban centres.
At the same time, the elections revealed growing pressure on traditional parties in larger towns and cities, where fragmented fields and shifting voter loyalties made outright victories harder to secure.
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As a result, numerous mayoral and district administrator races – including in Munich, Nuremberg and Augsburg – will now go to second rounds.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) fielded candidates across all independent cities and districts at these elections for the first time and the party is widely expected to improve on its state-wide result of 4.7 percent in 2020.
But the AfD did not win any mayoral or district administrator contests.
Final state-wide results will be confirmed by Wednesday, once all council votes have been fully counted.
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Support for Munich's incumbent mayor wavers
One of the most closely watched contests of the elections took place in Munich, where Dieter Reiter, the incumbent mayor from the centre‑left Social Democrats (SPD), had appeared comfortably ahead only weeks earlier.
Polls showed him on around 45 percent, with his rivals Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU) and Dominik Krause (Greens) trailing on roughly 20 percent each.
The final result was different: Reiter secured just 35.6 percent in the first round with Krause close behind on 29.5 percent. This means the two candidates will go to a runoff election, set for March 22nd.
Reiter himself admitted: “I made one or two mistakes in the last two weeks” and said his task now was to “regain lost trust”.
Those mistakes are well documented. Reiter apologised after using the “N‑word” during a city council meeting, which he described as a spontaneous quote from cabaret artist Fredl Fesl.
There were also issues over payments linked to an honorary supervisory role at FC Bayern Munich which had not been approved by the city council, prompting criticism from coalition partners and political opponents. Reiter said he had been unaware that approval was required.
Voting patterns appeared to underline the damage. Reiter performed better in the postal vote (around 39 percent) than on election day itself, where Krause led 32.5 percent to 30.8 percent.
Many of the postal votes are likely to have been cast before Reiter’s controversies became public, according to reporting in Mercur.
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Only candidate fails to win, candidate not running gets a majority
Elsewhere, the elections produced several unusual outcomes. In Chiemsee, where only one candidate appeared on the ballot, incumbent Armin Krämmer still failed to win a majority.
He received 47.7 percent, while 52.3 percent of voters wrote in other names, forcing a runoff despite his unopposed status.
Meanwhile in Philippsreuth the opposite occurred. Helmut Knaus, who had explicitly not stood for re‑election, was nevertheless re‑elected with 57.1 percent after voters wrote his name on the ballot.
“I would now like to retire,” Knaus had previously told the Süddeutsche Zeitung, but later said he would accept the result.
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