The 2004 Brandenburg state election was held on 19 September 2004 to elect the members of the 4th

Landtag of Brandenburg The Landtag of Brandenburg is the unicameral legislature of the state of Brandenburg in Germany. Its 88 members of parliament are usually elected every 5 years. It is responsible for deciding on state laws, controlling the state government an ...

. The incumbent government of 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 For ...

(SPD) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...

Matthias Platzeck Matthias Platzeck (born 29 December 1953) is a German politician. He was Minister President of Brandenburg from 2002 to 2013 and party chairman of the SPD from November 2005 to April 2006. On 29 July 2013 Platzeck announced his resignation fr ...

was returned with a significantly reduced majority. The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) moved into second place, although polls prior to the election suggested it would become the largest party. The CDU fell to third place.

Background

The SPD had suffered losses in several state elections before Brandenburg. This was thought to be a consequence of the

Agenda 2010 The Agenda 2010 is a series of reforms planned and executed by the German government in the early 2000s, a Social-Democrats/ Greens coalition at that time, which aimed to reform the German welfare system and labour relations. The declared objectiv ...

policy, a series of

economic liberal Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism, ...

economic reforms adopted by the federal SPD government led by Chancellor

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

. Many voters in eastern Germany turned to the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), while many in the west later turned to Labour and Social Justice, an SPD splinter party. In state elections, the SPD's growing unpopularity had chiefly benefited the CDU. In Brandenburg, both Minister-President

(SPD) and his partner

Jörg Schönbohm Jörg Schönbohm (2 September 1937 – 7 February 2019) was a German politician ( CDU) and a retired lieutenant general. He was the first commander of the Bundeswehr Eastern Command (BwKdo Ost) in 1990, which supervised the absorption of the East ...

(CDU) supported Schröder's reforms. Both PDS and the

German People's Union The German People's Union (german: Deutsche Volksunion, DVU, also ''Liste D'') was a political party in Germany. It was founded by publisher Gerhard Frey as an informal association in 1971 and established as a party in 1987. Financially, it was l ...

(DVU), which had entered the Landtag in 1999, campaigned in opposition.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 3rd Landtag of Brandenburg.

Opinion polling

Election result

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! Seats % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(SPD) , align= 372,942 , align= 31.9 , align= 7.4 , align= 33 , align= 4 , align= 37.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) , align= 326,801 , align= 28.0 , align= 4.7 , align= 29 , align= 7 , align= 33.0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align= 227,062 , align= 19.4 , align= 7.1 , align= 20 , align= 5 , align= 22.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(DVU) , align= 71,041 , align= 6.0 , align= 0.8 , align= 6 , align= 1 , align= 6.8 , - ! colspan=8, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

(Grüne) , align= 42,091 , align= 3.6 , align= 1.7 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Free Democratic Party (FDP) , align= 38,890 , align= 3.3 , align= 1.4 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Family Party (FAMILIE) , align= 30,843 , align= 2.6 , align= 2.6 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Others , align= 59,239 , align= 5.1 , align= , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - ! align=right colspan=2, Total ! align= 1,168,909 ! align= 100.0 ! align= ! align= 88 ! align= 1 ! align= , - ! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout ! align= ! align= 56.4 ! align= 2.1 ! align= ! align= ! align=

Sources

The Federal Returning Officer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandenburg State Election, 2004

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2004 elections in Germany