Hessian state election, 2018

Hesse state election, 2018
All 110 seats of the Landtag of Hesse, as well as 8 overhang and 19 leveling seats; 69 seats needed for a majority
Minister-President before election; Volker Bouffier ; CDU	Elected Minister-President ; TBD;

Last updated April 07, 2019

A state election was held in Hesse on 28 October 2018.^[1]

Hesse or Hessia, officially the State of Hesse, is a federal state (Land) of the Federal Republic of Germany, with just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden; the largest city is Frankfurt am Main.

It followed the vote in Bavaria two weeks earlier. Like in Bavaria, the parties of Chancellor Angela Merkel's federal government coalition − CDU and SPD − lost more than 20 percentage points combined (CDU -11.3%, SPD -10.9%), while the Hessian CDU's coalition partner The Greens and the opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the biggest increases in votes compared to the last election in 2013. The AfD's gains (+9%) were slightly larger than those of The Greens (+8.7%), making it the greatest net winner by additional votes and seats. Smaller parties also made gains. Turn-out decreased by 5.9 points to 67.3%.^[2]

The title Chancellor has designated different offices in the history of Germany. It is currently used for the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, the head of government of Germany.

Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as the leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018. Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and by many commentators as the leader of the Free World.

Despite suffering the biggest net loss of votes, the Christian Democratic Union maintained its leading position. The Greens and the Social Democrats finished with equal numbers of seats, although the Greens beat the Social Democrats by 66 votes. AfD, which ran for the first time for a state legislature in Hesse in 2013 and failed to win any seats, was the only new addition to the Hessian Landtag, and, by entering it, became present in all German state legislatures, a trait shared only by SPD and CDU/CSU, though the latter are technically two separate parties.

Germany is a federal republic consisting of sixteen states. Since today's Germany was formed from an earlier collection of several states, it has a federal constitution, and the constituent states retain a measure of sovereignty. With an emphasis on geographical conditions, Berlin and Hamburg are frequently called Stadtstaaten (city-states), as is the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, which in fact includes the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The remaining 13 states are called Flächenländer.

Like the preceding Bavarian election, the election in Hesse was overshadowed by federal politics and the poor condition of the German coalition government after two government crises, the "asylum quarrel" in June/July and the crisis around Hans-Georg Maaßen in September.^[3]^[4] As a consequence of the severe losses, the day after the election, chancellor Angela Merkel announced that that she will not seek re-election as party head at the party convention in Hamburg in early December and as German chancellor in 2021.^[5]

The 2018 German government crisis, sometimes referred to as Asylstreit, was a government crisis affecting the Fourth Merkel cabinet, which began in June 2018 and effectively ended in July 2018.

Hans-Georg Maaßen is a German civil servant and lawyer. From 1 August 2012 to 8 November 2018, he served as the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic security agency and one of three agencies in the German Intelligence Community.

Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany with a population of over 1.8 million.

Background

The incumbent Hesse government coalition consisted of CDU and the Greens.

The regional election for Hesse, along with the Bavarian state election held just two weeks before, was widely seen as a test for the ruling CDU/CSU and SPD coalition of Angela Merkel's fourth federal cabinet.^[6]

CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties or the Union, is the centre-right Christian democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany, namely the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU).

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany.

The fourth cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel is the current government of Germany, sworn in on 14 March 2018 after Merkel was proposed as Chancellor by President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and elected on the first ballot. It is the 24th cabinet of Germany.

Campaigns

Opinion polling

Polling firm	Fieldwork date	Sample size	CDU	SPD	Grüne	Linke	FDP	AfD	Others	Lead
Polling firm	Fieldwork date	Sample size							Others	Lead
2018 state election	28 Oct 2018	–	27.0	19.8	19.8	6.3	7.5	13.1	6.5	7.2
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen	24–25 Oct 2018	1,025	28	20	20	8	8	12	4	8
Civey	18–24 Oct 2018	4,467	27.0	22.0	18.5	7.5	8.0	13.0	4.0	5.0
INSA	18–22 Oct 2018	1,004	26	21	21	8	7	13	4	5
Infratest dimap	16–17 Oct 2018	1,002	26	21	20	8	9	12	4	5
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen	15–17 Oct 2018	1,035	26	20	22	8	8	12	4	4
Civey	2–12 Oct 2018	4,549	28.5	24.9	18.2	7.5	5.6	11.8	3.5	3.6
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen	24 Sep–1 Oct 2018	1,038	29	23	18	8	6	13	3	6
Civey	19–26 Sep 2018	4,509	28.6	23.0	15.8	8.8	7.6	12.4	3.8	5.6
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen	17–19 Sep 2018	1,039	32	25	15	8	6	11	3	7
Infratest dimap	13–19 Sep 2018	1,000	28	23	17	8	7	14	3	5
INSA	3–6 Sep 2018	1,039	29	24	14	8	7	14	4	5
Civey	14–30 Aug 2018	4,532	31.1	23.9	13.4	7.9	7.1	12.7	3.9	7.2
Infratest dimap	14–19 Jun 2018	1,003	31	22	14	7	7	15	4	9
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen	4–11 Jun 2018	1,049	31	25	13	8	8	11	4	6
INSA	9–16 May 2018	1,067	33	24	13	8	7	11	4	9
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen	19–21 Mar 2018	1,011	31	26	13	8	7	10	5	5
Allensbach	19 Dec 2017–31 Jan 2018	760	31	26	12	7	9	11	?	5
Forsa	8–22 Feb 2018	1,035	33	23	14	7	8	10	5	10
Infratest dimap	9–16 Jan 2018	1,006	31	25	13	8	8	12	3	6
2017 federal election	24 Sep 2017	–	30.9	23.5	9.7	8.1	11.5	11.9	4.4	7.3
Infratest dimap	5–10 Jan 2017	1,003	32	24	14	8	6	14	2	8
dimap	15–22 Aug 2016	1,000	36	27	13	6	4	9	5	9
Forsa	1–8 Apr 2016	1,004	33	27	11	6	7	10	6	6
Infratest dimap	12–16 Jan 2016	1,000	34	26	11	8	5	12	4	8
Forsa	17–26 Aug 2015	1,009	38	28	13	5	5	4	7	14
dimap	6–13 Jul 2015	1,003	41	27	14	6	6	2	4	14
dimap	10–14 Dec 2014	1,000	38	27	16	7	2	5	5	11
2014 European election	25 May 2014	–	30.6	30.3	12.9	5.6	4.1	9.1	7.3	0.3
Forsa	18–27 Feb 2014	1,002	39	27	12	7	5	5	5	12
2013 federal election	22 Sep 2013	–	39.2	28.8	9.9	6.0	5.6	5.6	4.9	10.4
2013 state election	22 Sep 2013	–	38.3	30.7	11.1	5.2	5.0	4.1	5.6	7.6

Results

Summary of the 28 October 2018 final election results for the Hessian Landtag ^[2]


Party		Ideology	Votes	Votes % (change)		Seats (change)		Seats % (change)

	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	Christian democracy	776,910	27.0%	−11.3pp	40	−7	29.2%	-13.5pp
	Alliance '90/The Greens (Grünen)	Green politics	570,512	19.8%	+8.9pp	29	+16	21.2%	+9.4pp
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	Social democracy	570,446	19.8%	−10.9pp	29	−8	21.2%	-12.4pp
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	German nationalism	378,692	13.1%	+9.0pp	19	+19	13.9%	+13.9pp
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	Liberalism	215,946	7.5%	+1.8pp	11	+5	8.0%	+2.5pp
	The Left (Die Linke)	Democratic socialism	181,332	6.3%	+1.1pp	9	+3	6.6%	+1.1pp
	Others		187,423	6.5%		0	±0	0%
Total			2,881,261	100.0%		137	+28	100.0%

State government formation

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References

↑ http://www.wahlrecht.de/termine.htm#termine-2018-01-23
1 2 https://statistik-hessen.de/l_2018/html/landesergebnis Official result
↑ Was die Hessenwahl für die Bundespolitik bedeutet, Frankfurter Allgemeine, 28 October 2018
↑ Schicksalswahl für Merkels Koalition, Frankfurter Allgemeine, 26 October 2018
↑ Angela Merkel bietet Verzicht auf Parteivorsitz an, Die Zeit, 29 October 2018
↑ "Hesse election: Merkel facing double trouble in German vote". BBC News. 26 October 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2018.

External links

Media related to Hesse state election 2018 at Wikimedia Commons

Hessischer Landeswahlleiter (Official website, German language)
Wahlumfragen zur Landtagswahl in Hessen (wahlrecht.de)

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[1] ttp://www.wahlrecht.de/termine.htm#termine-2018-01-23

[result-2] 1 2 https://statistik-hessen.de/l_2018/html/landesergebnis Official result

[3] Was die Hessenwahl für die Bundespolitik bedeutet, Frankfurter Allgemeine, 28 October 2018

[4] Schicksalswahl für Merkels Koalition, Frankfurter Allgemeine, 26 October 2018

[5] Angela Merkel bietet Verzicht auf Parteivorsitz an, Die Zeit, 29 October 2018

[6] "Hesse election: Merkel facing double trouble in German vote". BBC News. 26 October 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2018.

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