and city council The first freely elected mayor after German reunification was Hans-Dieter Dörbaum, who served from 1990 to 2012. Since 2012, Johannes Bruns of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has been mayor. The most recent mayoral election was held on 15 April 2018, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2| Candidate ! Party ! Votes ! % |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Johannes Bruns | align=left| Social Democratic Party | 6,917 | 62.7 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Ines Goldmann | align=left| Christian Democratic Union | 2,042 | 18.5 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Charlott Zitschke | align=left| Independent | 1,489 | 13.5 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Björn Kirchner | align=left| Independent | 576 | 5.2 |- ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 11,024 ! 98.6 |- ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 155 ! 1.4 |- ! colspan=3| Total ! 11,179 ! 100.0 |- ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 27,957 ! 40.0 |- | colspan=5| Source: Wahlen in Thüringen |} The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2| Party ! Lead candidate ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | align=left| Volker Bade | 8,453 | 18.7 | 2.3 | 7 | ±0 |- | | align=left| Citizens' List for Mühlhausen | align=left| Stefan Sippel | 8,266 | 18.3 | 2.9 | 7 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | align=left| René Seyfert | 7,158 | 15.8 | 12.5 | 6 | 4 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD) | align=left| Ronny Hermann Poppner | 6,806 | 15.1 | New | 5 | New |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| The Left (Die Linke) | align=left| Steffen Thormann | 5,504 | 12.2 | 6.6 | 4 | 3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | align=left| Micha Hofmann | 3,827 | 8.5 | 2.2 | 3 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Free Voters (FW) | align=left| Thomas Ahke | 3,678 | 8.1 | New | 3 | New |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | align=left| Bastian Boelecke | 1,527 | 3.4 | 0.9 | 1 | 1 |- ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 15,206 ! 97.6 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 373 ! 2.4