While counting ballots - 25/02/2025

My phone buzzed, only to be swallowed by the darkness, leaving no trace of an echo. It was 18:30—thirty minutes after the polls had closed. When the exit poll notification came through, I was standing alone inside the Holocaust Memorial. Leaning against one of the concrete slabs, I heard nothing. I couldn’t even say if I saw anything. It was one of 2,700 slabs, each slightly different in height, yet I had chosen this one. They all shared the same pale grey, cast under the same muted light. Doubt lingered in the chilling air. It was simply too quiet.

Stepping out of the translucent mist, I felt the air begin to move again. Even with a few cars passing through, Hannah Arendt Street remained eerily silent. Brandenburg Tor stood empty. Tonight, Berlin floated on a windless sea.

When a moment is recorded without a scene made, where do we find the news?

We zoom in. At 17:40, not many walked alone past Brandenburg Gate. With no crowd blocking the view, Navalny could have clearly seen the quadriga atop the gate. His photographs were scattered across different angles—at the Freedom Square, along the boulevard of Unter den Linden. When I passed by, an old man sat grumbling in Ukrainian on a nearby bench. People came and went along the snow-melted dirt track, occasionally pausing to take a closer look.

In one picture, Navalny sat confidently in a chair, offering a playful smile in a crisp dark suit. “He could have been President,” some still believed. There he was, featured in The Times, gazing back in a nostalgic portrait. His slogans. His prayers. A photo of him beside an Orthodox saint—like a holy fool. Navalny has become an icon in the west, A martyr, standing up to the injustice of the Russian dictatorship, fighting back whilst the west seems to watch on in rigor mortis. What would he think about the fact that a party that includes fascists and politicians on Putin's payroll just got 20%?

We examine within. I returned to Brandenburg Gate. Empty, in every sense. Only three groups remained: police officers standing under the arch, their expressions obscured by shadow; four hotel security guards, joking as they ended their shift; and a couple kissing under a streetlight, their silhouettes nearly merging into one.

What had I expected to see? I felt foolish. The Union had won. AfD would not be part of the government. Wasn’t that enough for a peaceful—perhaps even sweet—night in Berlin? Whatever the percentage, life moves forward. The undercurrents of a windless sea may be wild, but tonight must be calm. Many could finally sleep. Germany has never seen a more right wing government since the inception of the Bundesrepublik in 1945. Still, there remains hope on the other side of the political spectrum: The miraculous comeback of Die Linke, a party that was believed to be dead only a few months ago. The downfall of the FDP, whose leader Christian Lindner had cackled, wishing Die Linke “Good Luck” only a couple of weeks ago. He is leaving politics now, following the tradition of failing FDP bosses who move towards the private sector. Let's hope he lands on his feet and is not affected by the rigid social welfare cuts for people without a job, that he was advocating for through all of his tenure as minister of finances. He is not the only one leaving the centre stage of politics. After it became clear that the green party will probably not be part of a new government, leader Robert Habeck announced he will not aim for a leadership role in his party anymore. The German political landscape is changing. Complicated coalition talks await the country. Will Merz keep his promise to not work with the AfD? What innerparty changes are coming for SPD, Greens and FDP? How will Die Linke keep their momentum going? All these questions will be extensively discussed, analyzed and evaluated. But tonight Berlin needed to take a breather. It had been centerstage and exemplification to a more and more polarized society. Being a historical place is exhausting. For one night, Berlin deserved a break.

Brody .L, Anna Vogt, Jakob van Ooijen