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The Week in Germany: Current Affairs

February 1, 2008

Election Roundup: Voters Redraw Political Landscape in State Parliament Elections

Photo: Colourbox

Voters in the western German states of Hesse and Lower Saxony went to the polls on Sunday January 27 to choose new state parliaments. The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) saw its plurality diminished in both states, while the far-left party “Die Linke” (the Left) managed to clear the hurdle to win seats in both state governments.

CDU heavyweight Roland Koch, premier of Hesse since 1999, saw his party’s share of the vote drop 12 points from the most recent election in 2003. His CDU counterpart in Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff, retained enough support to stay in power but suffered a drop of nearly six points.

The results were ambiguous for Germany's other main party, the Social Democrats (SPD), whose support surged over 7 percent in Hesse but fell to its lowest level ever in Lower Saxony.

A clear winner was the minority Left party, which secured 7 percent in Lower Saxony, entering the state Parliament for the first time. In Hesse, the party just cleared the 5-per-cent hurdle to enter the state legislature, after not even contesting the 2003 election.

The CDU and its current coalition partner, the free-market oriented FDP, were set to continue in government in Lower Saxony. In Hesse, the election arithmetic left no clear outcome, with the CDU and the SPD neck-and-neck at 36.8 and 36.7 percent respectively, which gives each party 42 seats each in the 110-seat legislature.

That leaves the CDU unable to build a majority by teaming with the FDB. Similarly, a coalition of the SPD with the environmentally-minded Green party would lack a sufficient majority.

The next state elections are scheduled for February 24 in the city-state of Hamburg, where the ruling CDU is currently leading in the polls.

The next federal elections must take place by September 2009. (TWIG/dpa)

Links:

Complete overview of election coverage compiled by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies

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