The 2014 Saxony state election was held on 31 August 2014 to elect the members of the 6th

Landtag of Saxony The Landtag of Saxony (), also known in English as the Saxon State Parliament, is the legislature of the Free State of Saxony, one of Germany's sixteen states. It is responsible for legislation, control of the government, and electing some sta ...

. The incumbent

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and

Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...

(FDP) led by Minister-President

Stanislaw Tillich Stanislaw Rudi Tillich (; , ; born 10 April 1959) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the 3rd Minister President of Saxony from 2008 to 2017. From 1 November 2015 until 31 October 2016, he was Preside ...

was defeated as the FDP lost all its seats. The CDU subsequently formed a

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

with 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), and Tillich was re-elected as Minister-President.

Background

After the 2009 state election, held a month before the 2009 federal election, the CDU–SPD grand coalition left office and was replaced by a CDU-led coalition with the FDP. The FDP suffered a major decline in support nationally after 2009, culminating in their ejection from the Bundestag in the

2013 federal election The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on Saturday, 7 September 2013. The centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by Opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal ...

. Thus, in the lead-up to the 2014 state election, the Saxony state government was the only government nationwide that included the FDP. It seemed unlikely this coalition could continue after the election, as polling indicated the FDP may not even pass the 5% threshold to enter the Landtag. The largest opposition party was The Left. Polling indicated that a coalition between The Left, the SPD and

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * The Greens (Benin) *The Greens (Bulgaria) * Greens of Bosnia and He ...

may have been able to secure a majority, but this option was rejected by both the SPD and the Greens prior to the election. For the SPD, the state election in Saxony was their second electoral test (after the

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until 2019, 751 ...

) since becoming the junior partner in the federal grand coalition. Polls suggested that the public viewed the SPD's role in government as positive; issues that had been worked on by the government were primarily election promises of the SPD. Despite this, all polls showed that the SPD was headed for another third-place finish in the state election. The SPD's election campaign was centred on their lead candidate,

Martin Dulig Martin Dulig (born 26 February 1974) is a German politician for the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD). Until 20 December 2019, he was the Saxony, Saxon State Minister of Labor and Traffic and Deputy Minister Presi ...

, who involved his family in the campaign. Dulig was also supported by former federal Chancellor

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 ...

. The

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

(AfD) was hoping to win seats in a state parliament for the first time. In both the 2013 federal election and the 2014 European elections, AfD had achieved its strongest results in Saxony (6.8% in the federal election and 10.1% in the European elections). The National Democratic Party (NPD) had won seats in Saxony in 2004 and retained them, with losses, in 2009. Polling and election results for the NPD had trended downwards since then, with most polls suggesting the party would not cross the 5% threshold and would thus lose their representation. The

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 ...

won 1.9% of the vote in the previous state election. Despite polling in late 2011 and 2012 showing its support up to as much as 9% in Saxony, the party lost most of its popularity throughout 2013, and the party had averaged around 2% in Saxony since the end of the year.

Pre-election coalition talks

Polls suggested that the CDU would again be the largest party. Minister-President Tillich was therefore expected to lead coalition negotiations. In addition to the SPD, the Greens hoped for a coalition with the CDU, but a "black-green" coalition was considered unlikely because the Greens oppose coal mining in Saxony. Prior to the election, Tillich was open to coalitions with the FDP, the SPD, the Greens or AfD. Carsten Linnemann, the chairman of the CDU/CSU Business Association, stated that a coalition with the Greens was a viable alternative if the FDP did not obtain any seats. Tillich did not rule out a coalition with AfD, though CDU general-secretary

Peter Tauber Peter Michael Tauber (born 22 August 1974) is a former German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2021. From 16 December 2013 to 26 February 2018 he served as Secretary General ...

spoke out against the possibility. The Left was unlikely to overtake the CDU, according to polls. The party wanted to form a coalition with the SPD in particular. The SPD, however, were sceptical about such an arrangement. The NPD was not considered in coalition discussions.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 5th Landtag of Saxony.

Opinion polling

Election result

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! Seats % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align= 645,515 , align= 39.4 , align= 0.8 , align= 59 , align= 1 , align= 46.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , The Left (Linke) , align= 309,581 , align= 18.9 , align= 1.7 , align= 27 , align= 2 , align= 21.4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(SPD) , align= 202,396 , align= 12.4 , align= 2.0 , align= 18 , align= 4 , align= 14.3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(AfD) , align= 159,611 , align= 9.7 , align= New , align= 14 , align= New , align= 11.1 , - , 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 ...

(Grüne) , align= 93,857 , align= 5.7 , align= 0.7 , align= 8 , align= 1 , align= 6.4 , - ! colspan=8, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , National Democratic Party (NPD) , align= 81,051 , align= 4.9 , align= 0.7 , align= 0 , align= 8 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(FDP) , align= 61,840 , align= 3.8 , align= 6.2 , align= 0 , align= 14 , align= 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 ...

(FW) , align= 26,434 , align= 1.6 , align= 0.2 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , 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 ...

(Tierschutz) , align= 18,611 , align= 1.1 , align= 1.0 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Pirate Party Germany The Pirate Party Germany (), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the information society; it is part of the i ...

(Piraten) , align= 18,157 , align= 1.1 , align= 0.8 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Others , align= 20,547 , align= 1.3 , align= , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - ! align=right colspan=2, Total ! align= 1,637,499 ! align= 100.0 ! align= ! align= 126 ! align= 6 ! align= , - ! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout ! align= ! align= 49.1 ! align= 3.1 ! align= ! align= ! align=

Government formation

Due to the ejection of the FDP from the Landtag, the CDU was forced to seek new coalition partners. Minister-President Tillich ruled out a coalition with AfD. The CDU held exploratory talks with the Greens and the SPD. Talks with the Greens were inconclusive; the Greens claimed that education policy and energy policy were the sticking points. Antje Hermenau, the Greens' lead candidate, then resigned on 20 September. Coalition talks began on 19 September between the CDU and the SPD. On 9 November 2014, the SPD announced that 82.2% of its members had voted in favour of the coalition agreement between the CDU and SPD.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saxony state election, next 2014 elections in Germany

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

August 2014 in Germany