The 1986 Lower Saxony state election was held on 15 June 1986 to elect the members of the 11th

Landtag of Lower Saxony 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 ...

. The election result was reportedly affected by the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

, which occurred in late April of that year.

Background

In the , the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) under

Minister-President of Lower Saxony The Minister-President of Lower Saxony (), also referred to as Premier or Prime Minister, is the head of government of the German state of Lower Saxony. The position was created in 1946, when the states of Brunswick, Oldenburg, Schaumburg-Lipp ...

Ernst Albrecht achieved its best result ever in Lower Saxony with 50.7 percent of the vote, while the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD) under

Karl Ravens Karl Ravens (29 June 1927 – 8 September 2017) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). He served as the Federal Minister of Regional Planning, Construction and Urban Development for West Germany ...

suffered heavy losses. Since this was already Ravens' second loss against Albrecht, he decided not to run as a

candidate A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position. For example, one can be a candidate for membership in a group (sociology), group or election to an offic ...

again in 1986. When the SPD was looking for a candidate, the SPD leadership originally favoured former Federal Minister Anke Fuchs. However, after the former Federal Chairman of the Juso and then-Hanoverian MP

Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German former politician and Lobbying, lobbyist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (S ...

announced his candidacy and secured the support of several SPD district associations, Fuchs gave up being top candidate. There were some disputes within the SPD over the coalition question: While chancellor candidate

Johannes Rau Johannes Rau (; 16 January 193127 January 2006) was a German politician who served as President of Germany from 1999 to 2004. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he previously served as the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia fro ...

had ruled out a coalition with the Greens for the federal election planned for January 1987 and was counting on the SPD having its own majority, Schröder did not want to rule out a red-green coalition in general. The disputes between Rau and Schröder on this issue were one of the election campaign issues.

Parties and candidates

The state electoral committee approved 706 candidates (567 men and 139 women). The 623 district nominations consisted of 508 men and 115 women from 10 parties and individual candidates, the 389 state nominations consisted of 309 men and 80 women. Of these, 306 (56 women) also ran for a district nomination.

Results

While the CDU lost its absolute majority, the SPD again exceeded the 40 percent mark thanks to significant gains. In addition, around a third of the CDU's direct mandates went to the SPD. The Greens and the FDP only recorded minimal gains. Even though there was renewed circulation of candidacies from the other parties and some new parties were eligible, the small parties again received less than one percent of the votes together. The DKP's votes also halved compared to the last election.

Formation of a government

The CDU formed a coalition with the FDP, which had a majority of one vote. Albrecht was then confirmed as Minister President. Schröder resigned from his

Bundestag mandate The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the lower house of the German federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag was established by Title III of the Basic Law for ...

and moved into state politics as SPD parliamentary group leader and

opposition leader The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

. In December 1988, a constructive

vote of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

against Albrecht, brought by the SPD parliamentary group because of the casino affair, failed by 76 votes to 79. At least one member of the opposition parties SPD and Greens must have voted for Albrecht.

External links

election.de

References

{{Lower Saxony state election Elections in Lower Saxony Gerhard Schröder 20th century in Lower Saxony June 1986 in Germany 1986 elections in Germany