2008 Lower Saxony state election

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2008 Lower Saxony state election
Flag of Lower Saxony.svg
  2003 27 January 2008 2013  

All 152 seats in the Landtag of Lower Saxony
77 seats needed for a majority
Turnout3,422,552 (57.0%)
Decrease2.svg 10.0%
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Landtag Niedersachsen DSCF7769.JPG Landtag Niedersachsen DSCF7302.JPG Roesler-klein.jpg
Leader Christian Wulff Wolfgang Jüttner Philipp Rösler
Party CDU SPD FDP
Last election91 seats, 48.3%63 seats, 33.4%15 seats, 8.1%
Seats won684813
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 23Decrease2.svg 15Decrease2.svg 2
Popular vote1,455,6871,035,894279,557
Percentage42.5%30.3%8.2%
SwingDecrease2.svg 5.8%Decrease2.svg 3.1%Increase2.svg 0.1%

 Fourth partyFifth party
  Landtag Niedersachsen DSCF7803.JPG Landtag Niedersachsen DSCF7385.JPG
Leader Stefan Wenzel Kreszentia Flauger
Party Greens Left
Last election14 seats, 7.6%0 seats, 0.5%
Seats won1211
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 2Increase2.svg 11
Popular vote273,934243,106
Percentage8.0%7.1%
SwingIncrease2.svg 0.4%Increase2.svg 6.6%

2008 Lower Saxony state election.svg
Results for the single-member constituencies

Minister-President before election

Christian Wulff
CDU

Elected Minister-President

Christian Wulff
CDU

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]

Contents

Campaign

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]

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 15th Landtag of Lower Saxony.

NameIdeologyLeader(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

Opinion polling

Polling firmFieldwork dateSample
size
CDU SPD FDP Grüne Linke OthersLead
2008 state election 27 Jan 200842.530.38.28.07.13.912.2
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 14–17 Jan 20081,0014633775213
Infratest dimap 14–16 Jan 20081,0004434775310
Infratest dimap 2–4 Jan 20081,0004533783412
Emnid 10 Dec 2007 – 2 Jan 20088004532894213
AMR Düsseldorf 29 Dec 20071,0004434784310
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 4–6 Dec 20071,0564434774410
Infratest dimap 2–5 Nov 20071,0004433794311
Infratest dimap 5–10 Oct 20071,0014533685312
Emnid 2–6 Oct 20071,00045317104314
Infratest dimap 3–5 Sep 20071,0004434793310
Forsa 1–14 Aug 20071,1604729794418
Forsa 14–29 May 20071,0474629884417
Infratest 3–6 May 20071,000413688435
Forsa 29 Jan–13 Feb 20071,1934629993417
Infratest dimap 19–24 Jan 20071,0004334810239
Forsa 2–14 Nov 20061,08045291084416
Forsa 25 Sep–17 Oct 20061,05444301094314
Infratest dimap 23–27 Aug 20061,000403689434
Forsa 17 Jul–1 Aug 20061,0864631983315
Forsa 17 May–6 Jun 20061,039423688336
Infratest dimap 17–22 Feb 20061,000423787425
Emnid 7–12 Feb 20051,000433771036
Emnid 28 Feb 2005 ?4434710510
Infratest dimap 26–31 Jan 20041,000512988422
GMS 28 Nov–1 Dec 20031,00048.530.58.59.03.517.0
Emnid 27–31 May 20031,00048318101217
2003 state election 2 Feb 200348.333.48.17.60.52.014.9

Election result

Summary of the 27 January 2008 election results for the Landtag of Lower Saxony
PartyVotes %+/-Seats+/-Seats %
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)1,455,68742.5Decrease2.svg5.868Decrease2.svg2344.7
Social Democratic Party (SPD)1,035,89430.3Decrease2.svg3.148Decrease2.svg1531.6
Free Democratic Party (FDP)279,5578.2Increase2.svg0.113Decrease2.svg28.6
Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)273,9348.0Increase2.svg0.412Decrease2.svg27.9
The Left (Linke)243,1067.1Increase2.svg6.611Increase2.svg117.2
National Democratic Party (NPD)52,8171.5Increase2.svg1.50±00
Others81,5572.40±00
Total3,422,552100.0152Decrease2.svg31
Voter turnout57.0Decrease2.svg10.0
Popular Vote
CDU
42.53%
SPD
30.27%
FDP
8.17%
B'90/GRÜNE
8.00%
DIE LINKE
7.10%
Other
3.93%
Landtag seats
CDU
44.74%
SPD
31.58%
FDP
8.55%
B'90/GRÜNE
7.89%
DIE LINKE
7.24%

Outcome

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]

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