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All 152 seats in the Landtag of Lower Saxony 77 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 3,422,552 (57.0%) 10.0% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results for the single-member constituencies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2008 Lower Saxony state election was held on 27 January 2008 to elect the members of the 16th Landtag of Lower Saxony. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Christian Wulff was re-elected with a reduced majority. [1]
Lower Saxony was seen as a stronghold of the Christian Democratic Union [2] and their leader Christian Wulff was seen as likely to easily defeat the Social Democrats. [3] The election in Lower Saxony took place on the same day as the 2008 Hessian state election; Wulff was seen as a more moderate leader than Roland Koch in Hesse and consequently more likely to perform better in the election. [4] The CDU government had held spending down, introduced tuition fees for university students, while supporting the minimum wage. [5] The Social Democrats (SPD) led their campaign with a call for a national minimum wage for all workers. [6] The SPD leader in Lower Saxony, Wolfgang Jüttner, was little known to voters and unusually during the campaign made an attack on Wolff for his personal life. [7]
The table below lists parties represented in the 15th Landtag of Lower Saxony.
| Name | Ideology | Leader(s) | 2003 result | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | |||||
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands | Christian democracy | Christian Wulff | 48.3% | 91 / 183 | |
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands | Social democracy | Wolfgang Jüttner | 33.6% | 63 / 184 | |
| FDP | Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei | Classical liberalism | Philipp Rösler | 8.1% | 15 / 183 | |
| Grüne | Alliance 90/The Greens Bündnis 90/Die Grünen | Green politics | Stefan Wenzel | 7.6% | 14 / 183 | |
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | CDU | SPD | FDP | Grüne | Linke | Others | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 state election | 27 Jan 2008 | – | 42.5 | 30.3 | 8.2 | 8.0 | 7.1 | 3.9 | 12.2 |
| Forschungsgruppe Wahlen | 14–17 Jan 2008 | 1,001 | 46 | 33 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 13 |
| Infratest dimap | 14–16 Jan 2008 | 1,000 | 44 | 34 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| Infratest dimap | 2–4 Jan 2008 | 1,000 | 45 | 33 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 12 |
| Emnid | 10 Dec 2007 – 2 Jan 2008 | 800 | 45 | 32 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 13 |
| AMR Düsseldorf | 29 Dec 2007 | 1,000 | 44 | 34 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| Forschungsgruppe Wahlen | 4–6 Dec 2007 | 1,056 | 44 | 34 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 10 |
| Infratest dimap | 2–5 Nov 2007 | 1,000 | 44 | 33 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 11 |
| Infratest dimap | 5–10 Oct 2007 | 1,001 | 45 | 33 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 12 |
| Emnid | 2–6 Oct 2007 | 1,000 | 45 | 31 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 14 |
| Infratest dimap | 3–5 Sep 2007 | 1,000 | 44 | 34 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| Forsa | 1–14 Aug 2007 | 1,160 | 47 | 29 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 18 |
| Forsa | 14–29 May 2007 | 1,047 | 46 | 29 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 17 |
| Infratest | 3–6 May 2007 | 1,000 | 41 | 36 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Forsa | 29 Jan–13 Feb 2007 | 1,193 | 46 | 29 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 17 |
| Infratest dimap | 19–24 Jan 2007 | 1,000 | 43 | 34 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| Forsa | 2–14 Nov 2006 | 1,080 | 45 | 29 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Forsa | 25 Sep–17 Oct 2006 | 1,054 | 44 | 30 | 10 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 14 |
| Infratest dimap | 23–27 Aug 2006 | 1,000 | 40 | 36 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Forsa | 17 Jul–1 Aug 2006 | 1,086 | 46 | 31 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| Forsa | 17 May–6 Jun 2006 | 1,039 | 42 | 36 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Infratest dimap | 17–22 Feb 2006 | 1,000 | 42 | 37 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| Emnid | 7–12 Feb 2005 | 1,000 | 43 | 37 | 7 | 10 | – | 3 | 6 |
| Emnid | 28 Feb 2005 | ? | 44 | 34 | 7 | 10 | – | 5 | 10 |
| Infratest dimap | 26–31 Jan 2004 | 1,000 | 51 | 29 | 8 | 8 | – | 4 | 22 |
| GMS | 28 Nov–1 Dec 2003 | 1,000 | 48.5 | 30.5 | 8.5 | 9.0 | – | 3.5 | 17.0 |
| Emnid | 27–31 May 2003 | 1,000 | 48 | 31 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 17 |
| 2003 state election | 2 Feb 2003 | – | 48.3 | 33.4 | 8.1 | 7.6 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 14.9 |
| Party | Votes | % | +/- | Seats | +/- | Seats % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 1,455,687 | 42.5 | 5.8 | 68 | 23 | 44.7 | |
| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 1,035,894 | 30.3 | 3.1 | 48 | 15 | 31.6 | |
| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 279,557 | 8.2 |  0.1 | 13 | 2 | 8.6 | |
| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 273,934 | 8.0 | 0.4 | 12 | 2 | 7.9 | |
| The Left (Linke) | 243,106 | 7.1 | 6.6 | 11 | 11 | 7.2 | |
| National Democratic Party (NPD) | 52,817 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 0 | ±0 | 0 | |
| Others | 81,557 | 2.4 | 0 | ±0 | 0 | ||
| Total | 3,422,552 | 100.0 | 152 | 31 | |||
| Voter turnout | 57.0 | 10.0 | |||||
The results saw the Christian Democratic Union easily defeat the Social Democrats, despite suffering a drop in votes and seats. [8] [9] As a result, their leader Christian Wulff was seen as having strengthened his chances of succeeding national CDU leader Angela Merkel. [10] The 30.3% of the vote that the Social Democrats won was the worst performance by the party in Lower Saxony since the Second World War, [5] which was described as a 'disaster' for the party. [11] Turnout in the election was 57%. [10]
The Left entered the Landtag for the first time with 7.1% of the vote, comfortably exceeding the 5% electoral threshold. [12] Along with the election in Hesse held on the same day in which The Left also won seats, this was the first time they had achieved representation in any large state in western Germany. [13]
The Free Democratic Party is a liberal political party in Germany.
Roland Koch is a German jurist and former conservative politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the 7th Minister President of Hesse from 7 April 1999, immediately becoming the 53rd President of the Bundesrat, completing the term begun by his predecessor as Minister President, Hans Eichel, until his resignation on 31 August 2010. During his time in office, Koch was widely regarded as one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's main rivals within the CDU.
Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously served as minister president of the state of Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2010. He was elected to the presidency in the 30 June 2010 presidential election, defeating opposition candidate Joachim Gauck and taking office immediately, although he was not sworn in until 2 July. With the age of 51, he became Germany's youngest president.
The 2003 Lower Saxony state election was held on 2 February 2003 to elect the members of the 15th Landtag of Lower Saxony. The incumbent Social Democratic Party (SPD) majority government led by Minister-President Sigmar Gabriel was defeated. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came up one seat short of a majority, and formed a coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP). CDU leader Christian Wulff was subsequently elected minister-president.
Jürgen Rüttgers is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as the 9th Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2005 to 2010.
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Horst Lorenz Seehofer is a German politician who served as Minister for the Interior, Building and Community under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), he served as the 18th minister-president of Bavaria from 2008 to 2018 and Leader of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria from 2008 to 2019.
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Stanislaw Tillich is a German politician of the CDU. He served as the 3rd Minister President of Saxony from 2008 to 2017. From 1 November 2015 until 31 October 2016, he was President of the Bundesrat and ex officio deputy to the President of Germany. Tillich is of Sorbian ethnicity and lives in Panschwitz-Kuckau (Pančicy-Kukow), which is 35 kilometres north-east of Dresden near Kamenz.
The Lower Saxon Landtag or the Parliament of Lower Saxony is the state diet of the German state of Lower Saxony. It convenes in Hanover and currently consists of 146 members, consisting of four parties. Since 2022 the majority is a coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Greens, supporting the cabinet of Minister-President Stephan Weil (SPD).
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Stephan Weil is a German politician and the leader of the Social Democratic Party in Lower Saxony. On 20 January 2013, the SPD and the Green party won the 2013 Lower Saxony state election by one seat. On 19 February 2013, he was elected Minister President of Lower Saxony with the votes of SPD and Alliance '90/The Greens. From 1 November 2013 until 31 October 2014 he was President of the Bundesrat and ex officio deputy to the President of Germany. In November 2017, he was again elected Minister President with the votes of SPD and CDU.
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| Lower Saxony | |
|---|---|
| Brunswick | |
| Oldenburg | |
| Schaumburg-Lippe | |
| Local elections | |
