1983 West German federal election

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1983 West German federal election
Flag of Germany.svg
  1980 6 March 1983 (1983-03-06) 1987  

All 498 seats in the Bundestag [lower-alpha 1]
250 seats needed for a majority
Registered44,088,935 Increase2.svg 2.0%
Turnout39,279,529 (89.1%) Increase2.svg 0.5pp
 First partySecond party
 
KAS-Kohl, Helmut-Bild-14701-1.jpg
Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F079283-0006, Munster, SPD-Parteitag, Vogel (cropped).jpg
Candidate Helmut Kohl Hans-Jochen Vogel
Party CDU/CSU SPD
Last election44.5%, 226 seats42.9%, 218 seats
Seats won244 [lower-alpha 2] 193 [lower-alpha 3]
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 18Decrease2.svg 25
Popular vote18,998,54514,865,807
Percentage48.8%38.2%
SwingIncrease2.svg 4.3ppDecrease2.svg 4.7pp

 Third partyFourth party
 
Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F060666-0035, Koln, FDP-Parteitag, Genscher (cropped).jpg
Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F065187-0022, Bonn, Pressekonferenz der Grunen, Bundestagswahl (cropped).jpg
Candidate Hans-Dietrich Genscher Petra Kelly
Party FDP Greens
Last election10.6%, 53 seats1.5%, 0 seats
Seats won34 [lower-alpha 4] 27 [lower-alpha 5]
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 19Increase2.svg 27
Popular vote2,706,9422,167,431
Percentage6.9%5.6%
SwingDecrease2.svg 3.7ppIncrease2.svg 4.1pp

1983 German federal election - Results by constituency.svg
The left side shows the winning party vote in the constituencies, the right side shows the seats won by parties in each of the states. The pie chart over West Berlin shows the partisan composition of its legislature.

Government before election

First Kohl cabinet
CDU/CSUFDP

Government after election

Second Kohl cabinet
CDU/CSUFDP

Federal elections were held in West Germany on 6 March 1983 to elect the members of the 10th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU alliance led by Helmut Kohl remained the largest faction in parliament, with Kohl remaining Chancellor.

Contents

Issues and campaign

The SPD/FDP coalition under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was returned to power in the 1980 West German federal election. The coalition parties grew more and more apart over economic policies. Schmidt asked for and won a motion of no confidence on 5 February 1982. The FDP cabinet ministers resigned on 17 September 1982 and the SPD formed a minority government. On 1 October, Schmidt and the SPD government were dismissed from office by a constructive vote of no confidence by the votes of the CDU/CSU Union parties and a majority of the FDP deputies in the Bundestag. The Leader of the Christian Democratic Union and Leader of the CDU/CSU Group in the Bundestag Helmut Kohl succeeded Schmidt. The new coalition had a majority in the Bundestag but early elections were arranged to legitimize it. Neither the Bundestag itself nor the Chancellor has a right to dissolve the Bundestag, so Kohl did this by deliberately losing a vote of no confidence on 17 December 1982. Federal President Karl Carstens then dissolved the Bundestag and held new elections. The Federal Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of the dissolution.

The FDP was split by its change of coalition partners. The party leadership under Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Otto Graf Lambsdorff drove the new policy, but they were rejected by a minority under Gerhart Baum, Günter Verheugen and Ingrid Matthäus-Maier. The FDP was defeated in the 1982 Hessian state election on 26 September 1982, losing half its voters by gaining only 3.1 percent of the vote and failing to enter the state parliament thanks to an SPD campaign against the FDP's "betrayal in Bonn". The FDP was defeated again and lost all of its seats in the 1982 Bavarian state election on 10 October 1982.

Helmut Schmidt renounced his chancellor candidacy and was replaced by former Federal Minister of Justice Hans-Jochen Vogel. The SPD encountered difficulties because of the emergence of the Greens. A major issue in this election was the armament question after the NATO Double-Track Decision, something the SPD was deeply split on.

Results

Bundestag 1983.svg
PartyParty-listConstituencySeats
Votes%SeatsVotes%SeatsElected West Berlin Total+/–
Social Democratic Party 14,865,80738.1812515,686,03340.38681939202–26
Christian Democratic Union 14,857,68038.155515,943,46041.0413619111202+17
Christian Social Union 4,140,86510.6394,318,80011.124453053+1
Free Democratic Party 2,706,9426.95341,087,9182.80034135–19
The Greens 2,167,4315.57271,609,8554.14027128+28
National Democratic Party 91,0950.23057,1120.1500000
German Communist Party 64,9860.17096,1430.2500000
European Workers' Party 14,9660.0407,4910.0200000
Ecological Democratic Party 11,0280.0303,3410.010000New
Christian Bavarian People's Party 10,9940.0302,0680.0100000
Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists 3,4310.010000New
Independent Social Democrats3,3330.0104500.000000New
League of West German Communists 2,1290.0106860.000000New
Independents and voter groups31,9960.0800000
Total38,940,687100.0025038,845,353100.0024849822520+1
Valid votes38,940,68799.1438,845,35398.89
Invalid/blank votes338,8410.86434,1761.11
Total votes39,279,528100.0039,279,529100.00
Registered voters/turnout44,088,93589.0944,088,93589.09
Source: Bundeswahlleiter
Seat results - SPD in red, Greens in green, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black 1983 federal german result.svg
Seat results – SPD in red, Greens in green, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black

Results by state

Constituency seats

StateTotal
seats
Seats won
CDU SPD CSU
Baden-Württemberg 37361
Bavaria 45144
Bremen 33
Hamburg 77
Hesse 22175
Lower Saxony 312110
North Rhine-Westphalia 713932
Rhineland-Palatinate 16115
Saarland 532
Schleswig-Holstein 1192
Total2481366844

List seats

StateTotal
seats
Seats won
SPD CDU FDP Grüne CSU
Baden-Württemberg 3722375
Bavaria 4425649
Bremen 22
Hamburg 651
Hesse 2615443
Lower Saxony 3216844
North Rhine-Westphalia 753126108
Rhineland-Palatinate 157521
Saarland 321
Schleswig-Holstein 107111
Total2501255534279

Post-election

The coalition between the CDU/CSU and the FDP returned to government, gaining 55.7% of the vote and 55.8% of the seats, with Helmut Kohl as Chancellor. This was the first election in which the Greens secured representation in the Bundestag, and the first which saw a fourth (fifth) party in the parliament since 1960.

Notes

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References

    Sources