Lower Saxony state election, 2017

Last updated
Lower Saxony state election, 2017
Flag of Germany.svg
←  2013 15 October 2017
All 137 seats in the  Landtag (including overhang and leveling seats)
69 seats needed for a majority
Turnout 63.1%

  First party Second party Third party
  Stephan Weil (2013).png Althusmann.jpg Anja Piel (Martin Rulsch) 1.jpg
Leader Stephan Weil Bernd Althusmann Anja Piel
Party SPD CDU Green
Last election 49 seats, 32.6% 54 seats, 36.0% 20 seats, 13.7%
Seats won 55 50 12
Seat changeIncrease2.svg6Decrease2.svg4Decrease2.svg8
Popular vote 1,413,990 1,287,191 334,130
Percentage 36.9% 33.6% 8.7%
SwingIncrease2.svg4.3%Decrease2.svg2.4%Decrease2.svg5.0%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Stefan Birkner 2017.png No image.svg No image.svg
Leader Stefan Birkner Dana Guth Anja Stoeck
Party FDP AfD Left
Last election 14 seats, 9.9%Did not exist 0 seats, 3.1%
Seats won 11 9 0
Seat changeDecrease2.svg3Increase2.svg9Steady2.svg
Popular vote 287,957 235,863 177,118
Percentage 7.5% 6.2% 4.6%
SwingDecrease2.svg2.4%Increase2.svg6.2%Increase2.svg1.5%

Lower Saxony Landtag election 2017.svg

Prime Minister before election

Stephan Weil
SPD

Elected Prime Minister

Stephan Weil
SPD

A state election was held on 15 October 2017 to elect the 18th Landtag of Lower Saxony.

Landtag of Lower Saxony Parliament of the state of Lower Saxony, Germany

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 137 members consisting of five parties. Since 2017 the majority has been a coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union, supporting the cabinet of Minister-President Stephan Weil (SPD).

Contents

Following the 2013 state election, the SPD and Greens formed a coalition with a one-seat majority in the Landtag. After Elke Twesten of the Greens defected to the CDU on 4 August 2017, the coalition was deprived of its majority, prompting Prime Minister Stephan Weil to call for an early election on 15 October.

Social Democratic Party of Germany political party in Germany

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

Alliance 90/The Greens Political party in Germany

Alliance 90/The Greens, often simply Greens, is a green political party in Germany that was formed in 1993 from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90. The party focuses on ecological, economic, and social sustainability. Since January 2018 Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck have co-led the party. In the 2017 federal elections the Greens came sixth with 8.9% of the votes and 67 out of 709 seats in the Bundestag.

Background

Following the previous state election in 2013, a red-green coalition between the SPD and Greens was formed, holding a one-seat majority in the Landtag of Lower Saxony. After Green parliamentarian Elke Twesten defected to the CDU on 4 August 2017, the coalition lost its majority, [1] which prompted Prime Minister Stephan Weil to call to schedule an early election for 15 October. [2] The Landtag was officially dissolved on 21 August after 135 of 137 parliamentarians voted in favor, with 91 votes required for its dissolution. [3]

Elke Twesten German politician

Elke Twesten is a German politician for the CDU in Lower Saxony who switched parties from the Alliance '90/The Greens in 2017.

Stephan Weil German politician (SPD)

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 Prime Minister 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 Prime Minister of Lower Saxony with the votes of SPD and CDU.

Electoral system

The Landtag of Lower Saxony is elected using a mixed-member proportional representation system with at least 135 seats. Of these, 87 are elected in single-member constituencies, and the remainder are determined by party election lists. As in federal elections, voters have two votes: the first vote for candidates within each individual constituency, and the second vote for party election lists. There is a 5% threshold for the second vote in order to receive representation from party election lists. Seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method, with additional overhang and leveling seats to ensure proportionality of party representation relative to their share of second votes after the initial 135 seats have been allocated. The normal duration of the Landtag is 5 years. [4]

Mixed-member proportional (MMP) representation is a mixed electoral system in which voters get two votes: one to decide the representative for their single-seat constituency, and one for a political party. Seats in the legislature are filled firstly by the successful constituency candidates, and secondly, by party candidates based on the percentage of nationwide or region-wide votes that each party received. The constituency representatives are elected using first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) or another plurality/majoritarian system. The nationwide or region-wide party representatives are, in most jurisdictions, drawn from published party lists, similar to party-list proportional representation. To gain a nationwide representative, parties may be required to achieve a minimum number of constituency candidates, a minimum percentage of the nationwide party vote, or both.

A single-member district or single-member constituency is an electoral district that returns one officeholder to a body with multiple members such as a legislature. This is also sometimes called single-winner voting or winner takes all. The alternative are multi-member districts, or the election of a body by the whole electorate voting as one constituency.

The D'Hondt method or the Jefferson method is a highest averages method for allocating seats, and is thus a type of party-list proportional representation. The method described is named in the United States after Thomas Jefferson, who introduced the method for proportional allocation of seats in the United States House of Representatives in 1791, and in Europe after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt, who described it in 1878 for proportional allocation of parliamentary seats to the parties. There are two forms: closed list and an open list.

Parties

The table below lists parties that were represented in the Landtag before the election, polled above the 5 percent threshold, and were approved to run in the state election. [5]

Name Leading
candidate		 2013 result
Votes (%) Seats
CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany
Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands		 Bernd Althusmann 36.0%
54 / 137
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands		 Stephan Weil 32.6%
49 / 137
Grüne Alliance 90/The Greens
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen		 Anja Piel 13.7%
20 / 137
FDP Free Democratic Party
Freie Demokratische Partei		 Stefan Birkner 9.9%
14 / 137
Linke The Left
Die Linke		 Anja Stoeck 3.1%
0 / 137
AfD Alternative for Germany
Alternative für Deutschland		 Dana Guth –
0 / 137

In addition, the following parties were approved to run election lists in Lower Saxony. [5]

Opinion polling

Polling firm Fieldwork date Sample
size		 CDU SPD Grüne FDP Linke AfD Others Lead
2017 state election 15 Oct 2017 – 33.636.9 8.7 7.5 4.6 6.2 2.4 3.3
Civey 25 Sep–13 Oct 2017 5,073 31.834.6 8.5 8.9 5.7 7.8 2.7 2.8
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 10–11 Oct 2017 1,001 3334.5 9 9 5 7 2.5 1.5
INSA 4–6 Oct 2017 1,005 3233 10 10 5 7 3 1
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 2–5 Oct 2017 1,0833333 9 10 5 7 3 Tie
Infratest dimap 2–4 Oct 2017 1,0023434 8.5 8 4.5 8 3 Tie
Civey 24 Sep–1 Oct 2017 4,57033.1 32.8 9.9 8.0 5.4 8.1 2.7 0.3
Infratest dimap 26–27 Sep 2017 1,00435 34 9 8 5 6 3 1
2017 federal election 24 Sep 2017 –34.9 27.4 8.7 9.3 6.9 9.1 3.6 7.5
Infratest dimap 30 Aug–5 Sep 2017 1,00137 32 10 6 5 7 3 5
dimap 18–26 Aug 2017 1,00339 31 8 8 4 8 2 8
INSA 9 Aug 2017 1,00040 28 9 9 5 7 2 12
Infratest dimap 8–9 Aug 2017 1,00340 32 9 7 3 6 3 8
INSA 18–23 May 2017 1,00041 27 8 9 5 6 4 14
Forsa 18–28 Apr 2017 1,001 3536 8 6 4 6 5 1
Infratest dimap 13–18 Jan 2017 1,00235 31 14 6 4 8 2 4
Forsa 22 Dec 2016–9 Jan 2017 1,00034 32 12 6 4 7 5 2
INSA 6–14 Oct 2016 1,00033 31 12 8 5 7 4 2
Forsa 23 Oct–20 Nov 2015 1,00235 33 14 6 4 4 4 2
INSA 21 Aug–2 Sep 2015 1,00037 29 14 6 6 3 5 8
Infratest dimap 26 Jun–1 Jul 2015 1,00040 31 14 5 5 2 3 9
GMS 8–13 Jan 2015 1,01241 30 14 3 4 4 4 11
2014 European election 25 May 2014 –39.4 32.5 10.9 2.5 4.0 5.4 5.3 6.9
Infratest dimap 14–16 Jan 2014 1,00040 32 13 4 5 3 3 8
2013 federal election 22 Sep 2013 –41.1 33.1 8.8 4.2 5.0 3.7 4.1 8.0
2013 state election 20 Jan 2013 –36.0 32.6 13.7 9.9 3.1 – 4.6 3.4

Results

Niedersachsischer Landtag 2017.svg
Party Constituency Party list Total
seats		 +/–
Votes%SeatsVotes%Seats
Social Democratic Party SPD1,508,830 39.6% 551,413,990 36.9% 0 55 +6
Christian Democratic Union CDU1,420,083 37.3% 321,287,191 33.6% 18 50 –4
Alliance 90/The Greens Grüne283,327 7.4% 0334,130 8.7% 12 12 –8
Free Democratic Party FDP226,554 5.9% 0287,957 7.5% 11 11 –3
Alternative for Germany AfD174,521 4.6% 0235,863 6.2% 9 9 +9
The Left Linke170,660 4.5% 0177,118 4.6% 0 0 –
Animal Protection Party Tierschutz – – 027,108 0.7% 0 0 –
Die PARTEI Die PARTEI9,097 0.2% 022,578 0.6% 0 0 –
Free Voters FW11,348 0.3% 014,869 0.4% 0 0 –
Pirate Party PIRATEN2,350 0.1% 08,449 0.2% 0 0 –
Basic Income Alliance BGE – – 05,125 0.1% 0 0 –
German Centre DM – – 04,482 0.1% 0 0 –
V-Partei³ V-Partei³ – – 04,151 0.1% 0 0 –
Ecological Democratic Party ÖDP735 0.0% 04,042 0.1% 0 0 –
Liberal Conservative Reformers LKR488 0.0% 0950 0.0% 0 0 –
The Grays DG260 0.0% 0 – – 0 0 –
Independents EB2,447 0.1% 0 – – 0 0 –
Total3,811,125 100.0% 873,828,003 100.0% 50 137 –
Valid votes3,811,125 99.0%3,828,003 99.5%
Invalid votes37,892 1.0%21,014 0.5%
Turnout3,849,017 63.1%
Eligible voters6,098,379
Source: Niedersächsische Landeswahlleiterin

Government formation

Neither the incumbent red-green coalition between the SPD and Greens nor the black-yellow opposition of the CDU and FDP secured a majority of seats in the election. Because the FDP ruled out the possibility of a traffic light coalition (between the SPD, FDP, and Greens) and the Greens ruled out a Jamaica coalition (between the CDU, Greens, and FDP), [6] the SPD and CDU subsequently agreed to start negotiations to form a grand coalition. [7]

On 16 November, the SPD and CDU agreed to form a government. [8]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Lisa Caspari; Veronika Völlinger; Rita Lauter (4 August 2017). "Die Frau, die Niedersachsens Regierung stürzte". Die Zeit. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  2. ↑ "Niedersachsen-Wahl am 15. Oktober". Die Welt. 7 August 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  3. ↑ "Der Niedersächsische Landtag hat sich aufgelöst". Norddeutscher Rundfunk. 21 August 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  4. ↑ Wilko Zicht (20 January 2013). "Wahlsystem Niedersachsen". Wahlrecht.de. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  5. 1 2 "15 Landeswahlvorschläge vom Landeswahlausschuss zugelassen". Niedersächsische Landeswahlleiterin. 15 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "FDP und Grüne in Hannover stellen sich auf Opposition ein". Die Welt. Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "Niedersachsen vor Großer Koalition". ZDF. Deutsche Press-Agentur. 1 November 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  8. ↑ "SPD und CDU schließen "Koalition der Vernunft"". NDR. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
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