In order to move into the Bundestag for the BSW, Oliver Ruhnert retired at Union Berlin. However, his political mission failed for the time being. What’s next?
Actually, Oliver Ruhnert wanted to exchange football for professional politics: In order to run for the Bundestag for the Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) alliance, he gave up his office as managing director of Sport at Union Berlin a year ago, from then on was still the Bundesliga club. He also had this post rest since the beginning of the year in order to concentrate fully on the election campaign.
Now it is clear: it did not pay off as desired. In the constituency of Berlin-Marzahn-Hellerdorf, where Ruhnert ran as a direct candidate for the BSW, he reached 8.6 percent of the vote. He only landed in fifth place. The AfD candidate Gottfried Curio won the direct mandate with 29.5 percent of the vote. This was followed by CDU candidate Mario Czaja (29.2 percent), left-wing candidate Katalin Gennburg (16.8 percent) and Ben Schneider from the SPD (8.7 percent). After all, Ruhnert was able to leave Green candidate Maren Tepper (4.1), Konrad Klamann from the FDP (1.3) and Peter Schmidt from the free voters (1.2).
Even if Ruhnert had won the direct mandate, it would not have been enough to move into the Bundestag. Nationwide, the BSW only reached 4.97 percent of the votes and thus narrowly failed because of the five percent hurdle, which is required for the move -in as a parliamentary group into the Bundestag. An alternative would have been to win at least three direct mandates nationwide. The BSW did not do that either.
“We always focused on the second vote campaign and did not make great efforts for direct candidates. This is why I am not dissatisfied there with almost eleven percent, especially since it is the best Berlin result,” explains Oliver Ruhnert on Monday at T-Online. “Everything else will show the future. The choice is still too fresh for that.”
For the time being, the career in federal politics cannot be implemented for Ruhnert. At least locally, however, he continues to sit on the city council of his home community Iserlohn. But what’s next? “Everyone knows how much I love my job in football. Of course I would like to continue to be active there,” said Ruhnert. “People who apply for a public mandate return to their job more often if the choice does not succeed.”
As “Reviersport” reports, talks will be held at Union Berlin in the coming days as to whether Ruhnert should resume his old role as a chief scout. Ruhnert has been working at Union since 2018 and led the club from the 2nd Bundesliga to the Champions League.
So is Union the first point of contact or could Ruhnert imagine a leadership position at another club, for example ex-club Schalke 04? He says to T-Online: “A lot is possible in football. Honestly, I feel very comfortable in my function of the boss scout and do not strive for other functions.”