2009 Hesse state election

18 January 2009
All 118 seats of the Landtag of Hesse 60 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	2,591,872 (61.0%) 3.3%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Roland Koch Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel Jörg-Uwe Hahn Party CDU SPD FDP Last election 42 seats, 36.8% 42 seats, 36.7% 11 seats, 9.4% Seats won 46 29 20 Seat change 4 13 9 Popular vote 963,763 614,648 420,426 Percentage 37.2% 23.7% 16.2% Swing 0.4% 13.0% 6.8%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Tarek Al-Wazir Willi van Ooyen Party Greens Left Last election 9 seats, 7.5% 6 seats, 5.1% Seats won 17 6 Seat change 8 0 Popular vote 356,040 139,074 Percentage 13.7% 5.4% Swing 6.2% 0.3%
Results for the single-member constituencies.
Minister-President before election Roland Koch CDU Elected Minister-President Roland Koch CDU

The 2009 Hessian state election was held on 18 January 2009 to elect the members of the Landtag of Hesse. The election was called after the failure of all government formation attempts conducted after the 2008 state election held a year earlier. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) suffered major losses, falling from an effective tie with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to a 13.5-point deficit. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) and The Greens were the primary beneficiaries of the SPD's decline. After the election, the CDU formed a coalition government with the FDP, and Roland Koch was elected Minister-President.

Background

The result of the 2008 Hessian state election was inconclusive, as neither the CDU–FDP or SPD–Green blocs had won a majority. This was due to the entry of The Left into the Landtag, with which the SPD was unwilling to cooperate, though both The Left and Greens supported a red-red-green coalition between the three parties. While a grand coalition between the CDU and SPD would command a comfortable majority, this option was very unpopular and was rejected by the SPD.^[1]

In October 2008, SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti attempted to negotiate a red-red-green coalition, reneging on a pledge made earlier in the year not to do so.^[2] This caused an revolt within the Hessian SPD, resulting in Ypsilanti being deposed and the new leadership under Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel seeking fresh elections.^[3]

CDU leader Roland Koch had served as Minister-President prior to the 2008 election, and continued in office in a caretaker capacity between the 2008 and 2009 elections. He could not be unseated due to the inability of the SPD to form a new government; in Hesse, the motion to remove a serving government simultaneously invests confidence in a proposed new government, and requires an absolute majority to pass.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of Hesse.

Opinion polling

Election result

Summary of the 18 January 2009 election results for the Landtag of Hesse

Party		Constituency			Party list				Total seats	+/-
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	+/-	Seats
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	1,083,174	41.98	46	963,763	37.18	0.37	0	46	4
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	767,068	29.73	9	614,648	23.71	12.97	20	29	13
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	304,755	11.81	0	420,426	16.22	6.79	20	20	9
	Alliance 90/The Greens (GRÜNE)	274,492	10.64	0	356,040	13.74	6.20	17	17	8
	The Left (DIE LINKE)	117,330	4.55	0	139,074	5.37	0.23	6	6	0
	Free Voters (FW)	3,997	0.15	0	42,153	1.63	0.74	0	0	0
	National Democratic Party (NPD)	18,898	0.73	0	22,172	0.86	0.02	0	0	0
	The Republicans (REP)	7,685	0.30	0	15,664	0.60	0.41	0	0	0
	Pirate Party (PIRATEN)	–			13,796	0.53	0.28	0	0	0
	Civil Rights Movement Soliarity (BüSo)	962	0.04	0	4,136	0.16	0.12	0	0	0
	Independents	2,093	0.08	0	–				0	0
Total		2,580,424	100.00	55	2,591,872	100.00		63	118	8
Invalid		89,961	3.37		78,513	2.94
Turnout		2,670,385	61.03		2,670,385	61.03	3.29
Registered voters		4,375,286			4,375,286

References