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

Landtag of Saxony The Landtag of Saxony (german: Sächsischer Landtag), also known in English as the Saxon State Parliament, is the legislature of the Saxony, Free State of Saxony, one of Germany's sixteen States of Germany, states. It is responsible for legislat ...

. The incumbent Christian Democratic Union (CDU) government 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 ...

Georg Milbradt Georg Milbradt (born 23 February 1945) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister-President of Saxony from 2002 to 2008. Early life Milbradt was born in Eslohe. His family originally was from Wągrowie ...

lost its majority. 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 parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are t ...

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 For ...

(SPD), and Milbradt was re-elected as Minister-President.

Parties

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

Opinion polling

Election result

, - , colspan=8 align=center, SN Landtagswahl 2004

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! Seats % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align= 855,203 , align= 41.1 , align= 15.8 , align= 55 , align= 21 , align= 44.4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) , align= 490,488 , align= 23.6 , align= 1.4 , align= 31 , align= 1 , align= 25.0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(SPD) , align= 204,438 , align= 9.8 , align= 0.9 , align= 13 , align= 1 , align= 10.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , National Democratic Party (NPD) , align= 190,909 , align= 9.2 , align= 7.8 , align= 12 , align= 12 , align= 9.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Free Democratic Party (FDP) , align= 122,605 , align= 5.9 , align= 4.8 , align= 7 , align= 7 , align= 5.6 , - , 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= 106,771 , align= 5.1 , align= 2.5 , align= 6 , align= 6 , align= 4.8 , - ! colspan=8, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Human Environment Animal Protection The Human Environment Animal Protection Party (german: Partei Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz, short form: Animal Protection Party, german: Tierschutzpartei, links=no) is a political party in Germany, founded in 1993. In 2014 one candidate was elected ...

(Tierschutz) , align= 34,068 , align= 1.6 , align= 1.6 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Others , align= 75,652 , align= 3.6 , align= , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - ! align=right colspan=2, Total ! align= 2,080,135 ! align= 100.0 ! align= ! align= 124 ! align= 4 ! align= , - ! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout ! align= ! align= 59.6 ! align= 1.5 ! align= ! align= ! align=

Outcome

The most striking result of the election was the entrance of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) into the Landtag with 12 seats. This gained international attention. The party's support was concentrated in the rural areas; commentators attributed its success to alienation stemming from economic depression. The continuing strength of the

SED sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs, and is available today for most operating systems. sed wa ...

successor party, the Party of Democratic Socialism, which again was the second largest party, was also notable. The CDU remained the largest party with 55 of 124 seats, but lost its majority, forcing it to find coalition partners. The most logical was the

classical liberal Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic ...

Free Democratic Party, who entered the Landtag in the election, but a CDU–FDP government would be one seat short of the necessary majority. Cooperation with the PDS or

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties * Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *G ...

was ideologically unfeasible. A theoretical alliance between the CDU and NPD would hold a majority, but this was out of the question. The result was a

CDU and SPD. This government outcome was later mirrored in the 2005 federal election. The CDU's Georg Milbradt remained in office as Minister-President. Notably, the NPD received two more votes on the ballot for Minister-President than it had members in the Landtag. It is presumed that two CDU Landtag members backed the NPD as a protest against the grand coalition.

Notes

Sources

The Federal Returning Officer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saxony State Election, 2004 Elections, 2004 2004 elections in Germany