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The 2016 Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on 13 March 2016 to elect the members of the 7th
Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt The Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt is the parliament of the German federal state Saxony-Anhalt. It convenes in Magdeburg and currently consists of 97 members of six parties. The current majority is a coalition of the Social Democratic Party, Free Demo ...
. The incumbent
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 ...
of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and
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) led by Minister-President
Reiner Haseloff Reiner Erich Haseloff (born 19 February 1954) is a German politician who serves as the Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt. On 9 October 2020, he was elected President of the Bundesrat. His one-year term started on 1 November 2020. Political ...
lost its majority. 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) debuted at 24.3%, with every other parliamentary party recording losses, particularly the SPD and The Left. The CDU subsequently formed a coalition with 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 ...
, which was dubbed the " Kenya coalition". Haseloff was re-elected as Minister-President on 25 April.


Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 6th Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt.


Opinion polling


Election result

The actual result was significantly different from what prior opinion polling indicated. In comparison to the late-campaign polls, the AfD scored approximately 6% higher, while The Left and SPD each scored around 5% lower. The Left were expected to suffer only small losses, but instead achieved their worst result since 1990. This made AfD the clear second-place finisher, in contrast to polling which predicted The Left would remain the second largest party. The SPD, who were already projected to achieve their worst ever result in the state, suffered a catastrophic result, losing over half their voteshare and barely reaching 10%. The Greens narrowly returned to the Landtag, while the FDP fell barely 1,600 votes short of the 5% threshold. Minor parties performed better than expected, with 9% of votes going to them, compared to the 5–6% predicted. , - , colspan=8, , - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! Seats % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align= 334,139 , align= 29.8 , align= 2.7 , align= 30 , align= 11 , align= 34.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,
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) , align= 272,496 , align= 24.3 , align= New , align= 25 , align= New , align= 28.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , The Left (Linke) , align= 183,290 , align= 16.3 , align= 7.4 , align= 16 , align= 13 , align= 18.4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,
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) , align= 119,368 , align= 10.6 , align= 10.9 , align= 11 , align= 15 , align= 12.6 , - , 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= 58,209 , align= 5.2 , align= 1.9 , align= 5 , align= 4 , align= 5.7 , - ! colspan=8, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Free Democratic Party (FDP) , align= 54,565 , align= 4.9 , align= 1.1 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , 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= 24,269 , align= 2.2 , align= 0.6 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , National Democratic Party (NPD) , align= 21,230 , align= 1.9 , align= 2.7 , 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= 16,611 , align= 1.5 , align= 0.1 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , , align=left , Animal Protection Alliance , align= 11,653 , align= 1.0 , align= New , align= 0 , align= New , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Others , align= 27,047 , align= 2.4 , align= , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - ! align=right colspan=2, Total ! align= 1,122,877 ! align= 100.0 ! align= ! align= 87 ! align= 18 ! align= , - ! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout ! align= ! align= 61.1 ! align= 9.9 ! align= ! align= ! align=


Results by District


Outcome

The CDU won 30% of the votes and remained the largest party, but faced a strong challenge from the AfD. After the election, Haseloff stated: "The rise which AfD saw in the polls has the name of a city: it's Cologne," referring to the
New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...
. He claimed that "as the Christian Democratic Union here in Saxony-Anhalt, we have done nothing wrong." According to observers, the only realistic possibility for a coalition government with a majority was one consisting of the CDU, SPD and the Greens, which held a two-seat majority. Other potential majority coalitions were considered unlikely or politically impossible, such as CDU–Left or CDU–AfD. For a broad-based majority, the coalition would have needed to include both the CDU and The Left, which was infeasible. Another possible option was a minority government "tolerated" by another party or parties which were themselves not part of the government. In this situation, these parties would abstain from the vote for Minister-President, allowing the minority government to be formed with a simple plurality, rather than the typical absolute majority. Such a situation had existed in Saxony-Anhalt between 1994 and 2002, with an SPD minority government supported by The Left. The most likely arrangement in 2016 would have been a minority government of the CDU and SPD with the tolerance of the Greens and/or The Left. Similarly, a CDU–Green coalition could have been tolerated by the SPD and/or The Left. An SPD–Left–Green coalition could be tolerated by the CDU, although this possibility was highly unlikely. Ultimately, the CDU, SPD, and Greens agreed to form a coalition government together, to the exclusion of The Left. This was dubbed the " Kenya coalition", a reference to the colours of the parties and those of the
flag of Kenya The flag of Kenya () is a tricolour of black, red, and green with two white edges imposed with a red, white and black Maasai shield and two crossed spears. The flag is mainly based on that of Kenya African National Union and was officially ado ...
. This was the first such coalition formed in Germany. On 25 April 2016, Haseloff was re-elected as Minister-President by the Landtag on the second ballot, in which he won one vote more than the necessary majority.Haseloff erst im zweiten Anlauf wiedergewählt
Frankfurter Allgemeine The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...
, in German


References


External links


Saxony-Anhalt Electoral Office
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saxony-Anhalt state election, 2016 2016 elections in Germany
2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
March 2016 in Germany