The 2018 Hessian state election was held on 28 October 2018 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 outgoing government was a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and The Greens led by Minister-President Volker Bouffier. The election was held two weeks after the 2018 Bavarian state election, which saw the CSU 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) suffer major losses, with third parties making major gains. The result in Hesse was largely similar, with the CDU and SPD losing more than 20 percentage points between them, while the Greens and

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) gained approximately 9 points each. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) and The Left also made gains. Compared to the 2013 election turnout fell by 5.9 points to 67.3%.https://statistik-hessen.de/l_2018/html/landesergebnis Official result Despite suffering the worst losses of any party, the CDU remained the largest party by a comfortable margin. The Greens and SPD each won 29 seats and 19.8% of the vote; the Greens moved into second place by an extremely narrow margin of just 66 votes. The AfD, which failed to win seats in 2013, won 13.1% and 19 seats. By entering the Landtag in Hesse, it became the only third party present in all sixteen state parliaments. The election was influenced by the poor condition of the federal government in the aftermath of the " asylum quarrel" in June/July and the crisis around

Hans-Georg Maaßen Hans-Georg Maaßen (born 24 November 1962 in Mönchengladbach) is a German civil servant and lawyer. From 1 August 2012 to 8 November 2018, he served as the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domes ...

in September. One day after the election, federal Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

announced that she would not seek re-election as CDU leader at the party convention in early December, nor seek her party's nomination as Chancellor candidate for the next federal election. The incumbent CDU–Green government was returned with a slim majority of one seat, and was subsequently renewed.

Background

The incumbent Hesse government coalition consisted of CDU and the Greens. The regional election for Hesse, along with the Bavarian state election held just two weeks before, was widely seen as a test for the ruling CDU/CSU and SPD coalition of Angela Merkel's fourth federal cabinet.

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 , 843,068 , 29.34 , 40 , 776,910 , 26.96 , -11.35 , 0 , 40 , 7 , - , 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 ...

, 517,904 , 18.03 , 5 , 570,512 , 19.80 , +8.66 , 24 , 29 , 15 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

, 670,637 , 23.34 , 10 , 570,446 , 19.80 , -10.93 , 19 , 29 , 8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

, 362,210 , 12.61 , 0 , 378,692 , 13.14 , +9.09 , 19 , 19 , 19 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party , 205,384 , 7.15 , 0 , 215,946 , 7.49 , +2.47 , 11 , 11 , 5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left , 164,535 , 5.73 , 0 , 181,332 , 6.29 , +1.14 , 9 , 9 , 3 , - , 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 ...

, 88,122 , 3.07 , 0 , 85,465 , 2.97 , +1.74 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Human Environment Animal Protection Party , 471 , 0.02 , 0 , 28,095 , 0.98 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Die PARTEI (''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazine ...

, 12,007 , 0.42 , 0 , 18,334 , 0.64 , +0.15 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , 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 ...

, 3,818 , 0.13 , 0 , 11,617 , 0.40 , -1.52 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Ecological Democratic Party , 3,232 , 0.11 , 0 , 7,539 , 0.26 , +0.13 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, National Democratic Party , colspan=3, – , 6,173 , 0.21 , -0.85 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , , align=left, Grey Panthers , colspan=3, – , 4,870 , 0.17 , +0.09 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance C – Christians for Germany , colspan=3, – , 3,789 , 0.13 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Party for Health Research , colspan=3, – , 3,572 , 0.12 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, V-Partei³ , 145 , 0.01 , 0 , 3,553 , 0.12 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Basic Income Alliance , colspan=3, – , 3,031 , 0.11 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance of German Democrats , colspan=3, – , 2,971 , 0.10 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Party of Humanists , colspan=3, – , 2,646 , 0.09 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Violets , 373 , 0.01 , 0 , 2,403 , 0.08 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , , align=left, Human World , 74 , 0.00 , 0 , 1,600 , 0.06 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Liberal Conservatives , 139 , 0.00 , 0 , 1,340 , 0.05 , New , 0 , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Solidarity Movement , colspan=3, – , 425 , 0.01 , -0.03 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , , align=left, Non-partisan Residents , 643 , 0.02 , 0 , colspan=4, – , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Democracy in Motion , 168 , 0.01 , 0 , colspan=4, – , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany The Anarchistic Pogo Party of Germany (German: ''Anarchistische Pogo-Partei Deutschlands'', or 'APPD') is the self-declared party of the ''Pöbel'' (mob) and " social parasites". It was created in 1981 by two punks in Hannover and took part in t ...

, 94 , 0.00 , 0 , colspan=4, – , 0 , 0 , - , , align=left, Ecological Left , 46 , 0.00 , 0 , colspan=4, – , 0 , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=2, Total ! 2,873,070 ! 100.00 ! 55 ! 2,881,261 ! 100.00 ! ! 82 ! 137 ! 27 , - , colspan=2 align=center, Invalid , 69,776 , 2.37 , , 61,585 , 2.09 , colspan=4, , - ! colspan=2, Turnout ! 2,942,846 ! 67.30 ! ! 2,942,846 ! 67.30 ! -5.93 ! colspan=4, , - , colspan=2 align=center, Registered voters , 4,372,788 , colspan=2, , 4,372,788 , colspan=5, File:Landesstimmen 2018 der CDU (%) Graustufen.svg, CDU vote File:Landesstimmen 2018 der Grünen (%).svg, Green vote File:Landesstimmen 2018 der SPD (%).svg, SPD vote File:Landesstimmen 2018 der AfD (%).svg, AfD vote File:Landesstimmen 2018 der FDP (%).svg, FDP vote File:Landesstimmen 2018 der Linken (%).svg, Linke vote

State government formation

Despite heavy losses inflicted on the party, the CDU returned to government after negotiating a coalition agreement with the Greens, the second consecutive such arrangement between the two parties. The two parties formed the narrowest possible majority in the

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

, occupying 69 seats. As part of the agreement, the Greens increased their representation in the Cabinet, holding four of the eleven portfolios. The returned coalition only became possible after a recount of votes took place several weeks after the election, due to computer glitches which affected some election night results. Following the recount, the state election commissioner announced that compared to the provisional figures, there were no significant shifts in the percentages, and the distribution of seats in the state parliament had not changed.

References

External links

Hessischer Landeswahlleiter
(Official website, German language)

( wahlrecht.de)
KOALITIONSVERTRAG
(Text of the CDU/Greens Coalition Agreement, German) {{2018 elections in Germany 2018 elections in Germany

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

October 2018 in Germany