The 2008 Hessian state election was held on 27 January 2008 to elect the members of the

Landtag of Hesse The Landtag of Hesse () is the unicameral parliament of the State of Hesse in the Federal Republic of Germany. It convenes in the Stadtschloss in Wiesbaden. As a legislature it is responsible for passing laws at the state level and enacting ...

. The incumbent Christian Democratic Union (CDU) government led by Minister-President Roland Koch lost its majority. The result of the election was extremely close but inconclusive, with the CDU winning just 3,500 votes (0.1%) more than 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). Due to the entrance of The Left to the Landtag, neither the CDU– FDP or SPD–

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

bloc garnered a majority. After a year of failed attempts to form government, a new election was held.

Background and issues

The CDU won a majority in the 2003 state election, but lost popularity in the following years. In the 2008 election campaign, CDU Minister-President Roland Koch took a tough stance against immigrant youth violence as an electoral tactic. The political left criticised this as

xenophobic Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

. Other issues included

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

concerns, education, and controversy over the planned major expansion of the Rhine-Main airport. The formation of The Left meant that a party to the left of the SPD and Greens stood a serious chance of entering the Landtag for the first time in decades. The party polled between 4 and 6 per cent in the lead-up to the election; it was unclear if the party would exceed the 5% threshold. Polling data narrowed as the election approached; both the CDU and SPD and their junior partners the FDP and Greens were essentially tied. This meant that, if The Left entered the Landtag, it may hold the balance of power and make government formation difficult.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of Hesse.

Opinion polling

Election result

, - ! rowspan=2 colspan=2, Party ! colspan=3, Constituency ! colspan=4, Party list ! rowspan=2, Total
seats ! rowspan=2, +/- , - ! Votes ! % ! Seats ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 1,068,358 , 39.13 , 28 , 1,009,775 , 36.81 , -11.96 , 14 , 42 , 14 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

, 1,047,051 , 38.35 , 27 , 1,006,264 , 36.69 , +7.60 , 15 , 42 , 9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party , 196,004 , 7.18 , 0 , 258,550 , 9.43 , +1.52 , 11 , 11 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

, 206,250 , 7.55 , 0 , 205,610 , 7.53 , -2.57 , 9 , 9 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left , 106,975 , 3.92 , 0 , 140,769 , 5.13 , New , 6 , 6 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Republicans , 39,126 , 1.43 , 0 , 27,724 , 1.01 , -0.25 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Free Voters Free Voters (, FW) is a political party in Germany. It originates as an umbrella organisation of several Free Voters Associations (), associations of people which participate in an election without having the status of a registered party. These a ...

, 36,212 , 1.33 , 0 , 24,327 , 0.89 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, National Democratic Party , 17,627 , 0.65 , 0 , 24,004 , 0.88 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Human Environment Animal Protection Party The Human Environment Animal Protection Party (, short form: Animal Protection Party, ) is a political party in Germany, founded in 1993. In 2014, the party elected one Member of the European Parliament, MEP to the European Parliament, and it has ...

, 8,833 , 0.32 , 0 , 15,909 , 0.58 , -0.17 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Family Party , 1,243 , 0.05 , 0 , 7,817 , 0.28 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Pirate Party Pirate Party is a label adopted by various Political party, political parties worldwide that share a set of values and policies focused on Civil and political rights, civil rights in the digital age. The fundamental principles of Pirate Partie ...

, colspan=3, – , 6,962 , 0.25 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Grays – Gray Panthers , 717 , 0.03 , 0 , 4,810 , 0.18 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , , align=left, Alliance for Germany , 238 , 0.01 , 0 , 3,130 , 0.11 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Violets , colspan=3, – , 2,380 , 0.09 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , , align=left, Independent Citizen Politics , 595 , 0.02 , 0 , 1,775 , 0.06 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Civil Rights Movement Soliarity , 361 , 0.01 , 0 , 1,118 , 0.04 , -0.02 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Socialist Equality Party , colspan=3, – , 1,035 , 0.04 , -0.01 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Independents , 595 , 0.02 , 0 , colspan=4, – , 0 , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=2, Total ! 2,730,185 ! 100.00 ! 55 ! 2,742,599 ! 100.00 ! ! 55 ! 110 ! 0 , - , colspan=2 align=center, Invalid , 80,888 , 2.88 , , 68,114 , 2.42 , colspan=4, , - ! colspan=2, Turnout ! 2,811,073 ! 64.32 ! ! 2,811,073 ! 64.32 ! -0.30 ! colspan=4, , - , colspan=2 align=center, Registered voters , 4,370,463 , colspan=2, , 4,370,463 , colspan=5,

Outcome

The CDU's share of the vote fell to its lowest level since the 1966 election. The SPD, under its leader

Andrea Ypsilanti Andrea Ypsilanti (' Dill; born 8 April 1957) is a German politician. Political career Ypsilanti was a member of the Hessian ''Landtag'' (parliament) and served as chairperson of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Hesse from March 2003 to J ...

, increased its share of the vote substantially, from 29% to 37%; the SPD claimed victory as a result. The other winner was The Left, who narrowly entered the Hesse Landtag with 5.1% of the vote. This was the second western state legislature which the party had entered, the first being Bremen in 2007. The party also won seats in neighbouring Lower Saxony in an election held the same day. The SPD and the CDU both won 42 seats; the FDP won 11 and the Greens 9. With 56 seats needed for a majority, neither was able to form a government with their traditional partners. There was a several-month-long lull after the election. The Left was thus

kingmaker A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a monarchy or royal in their political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and military means to influence the ...

, exactly the result it had hoped for. A

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition () is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' traditional colours, respectively red, y ...

(SPD, FDP, Greens) would have held a majority (62), but was rejected by FDP, saying that they will only form a coalition with CDU or go into opposition. SPD leader Ypsilanti had long refused to negotiate with The Left, but in October 2008 began talks to include them in a three-party "red-green-red" coalition with herself as Minister-President. This was a controversial move which sparked a revolt in the SPD, as many members bitterly refused to participate in power-sharing with The Left. One day before the election for Minister-President in the Landtag, four members of the SPD parliamentary group indicated they would not vote for her, and called a vote of no-confidence on her leadership. After this point, it became clear a red-red-green coalition was not viable. New elections were subsequently scheduled for January 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hesse State Election, 2008 2008 elections in Germany

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

January 2008 in Germany