'Jens Böhrnsen' (born
June 12 1949 in
Bremen) is a
German politician of the
SPD. He is the current mayor of
Bremen, and ex officio the prime minister of the
state of Bremen.
Bremen's legislative assembly decided to elect Böhrnsen as mayor after he had won the Social Democrat primary for the mayoralty, which had become vacant after incumbent
Henning Scherf announced on
28 September 2005 that he intended to resign in December. On his election on
8 November 2005, the new mayor took his oath of office.
Recently, Böhrnsen has been involved in the debate revolving around a modernisation of
Germany's constitution. In the process, he rejected demands for the state of Bremen to be merged with
Lower Saxony to form a new northern state — a demand that has been making the rounds as Bremen is not only the smallest German state, but has also been saddled with an extraordinary amount of debt for the past 15 years.