The 2009 Hessian state election was held on 18 January 2009 to elect the members of the
Landtag of Hesse
The Landtag of Hesse (german: link=no, Hessischer Landtag) 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 l ...
. The election was called after the failure of all government formation attempts conducted after the
2008 state election held a year earlier. 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
Fo ...
(SPD) suffered major losses, falling from an effective tie with the
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to a 13.5-point deficit. The
Free Democratic Party (FDP) and
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
*Gree ...
were the primary beneficiaries of the SPD's decline. After the election, the CDU formed a
coalition government with the FDP, and
Roland Koch
Roland Koch (born 24 March 1958) is a German jurist and former conservative politician of the CDU. He was the 7th Minister President of Hesse from 7 April 1999, immediately becoming the 53rd President of the Bundesrat, completing the term beg ...
was elected
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. I ...
.
Background
The result of the
2008 Hessian state election was inconclusive, as neither the CDU–FDP or SPD–Green blocs had won a majority. This was due to the entry of
The Left into the Landtag, with which the SPD was unwilling to cooperate, though both The Left and Greens supported a
red-red-green coalition between the three parties. While a
grand coalition between the CDU and SPD would command a comfortable majority, this option was very unpopular and was rejected by the SPD.
In October 2008, SPD leader
Andrea Ypsilanti attempted to negotiate a red-red-green coalition, reneging on a pledge made earlier in the year not to do so. This caused an revolt within the Hessian SPD, resulting in Ypsilanti being deposed and the new leadership under
Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel
Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel (' Schäfer; born 1 October 1969) is a former German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as member of the management board of GIZ since 2019.
Schäfer-Gümbel notably was the leader of ...
seeking fresh elections.
CDU leader
Roland Koch
Roland Koch (born 24 March 1958) is a German jurist and former conservative politician of the CDU. He was the 7th Minister President of Hesse from 7 April 1999, immediately becoming the 53rd President of the Bundesrat, completing the term beg ...
had served as Minister-President prior to the 2008 election, and continued in office in a caretaker capacity between the 2008 and 2009 elections. He could not be unseated due to the inability of the SPD to form a new government; in Hesse, the motion to remove a serving government simultaneously invests confidence in a proposed new government, and requires an absolute majority to pass.
Parties
The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of Hesse.
Opinion polling
Election result
, -
! colspan="2" , Party
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
! Seats %
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left ,
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
, align= 963,763
, align= 37.2
, align= 0.4
, align= 46
, align= 4
, align= 39.0
, -
, 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
Fo ...
(SPD)
, align= 614,648
, align= 23.7
, align= 13.0
, align= 29
, align= 13
, align= 24.6
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left ,
Free Democratic Party (FDP)
, align= 420,426
, align= 16.4
, align= 6.8
, align= 20
, align= 9
, align= 16.9
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left ,
Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
, align= 356,040
, align= 13.7
, align= 6.2
, align= 17
, align= 8
, align= 14.4
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left ,
The Left (Linke)
, align= 139,074
, align= 5.4
, align= 0.3
, align= 6
, align= 0
, align= 5.1
, -
! colspan=8,
, -
,
, align=left ,
Free Voters
Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...
(FW)
, align= 42,153
, align= 1.6
, align= 0.7
, align= 0
, align= ±0
, align= 0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left , Others
, align= 55,768
, align= 2.2
, align=
, align= 0
, align= ±0
, align= 0
, -
! align=right colspan=2, Total
! align= 2,591,872
! align= 100.0
! align=
! align= 118
! align= 8
! align=
, -
! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout
! align=
! align= 61.0
! align= 3.3
! align=
! align=
! align=
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hesse State Election, 2009
2009 elections in Germany
2009