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 For ...

(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 *G ...

were the primary beneficiaries of the SPD's decline. After the election, the CDU formed a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

with the FDP, and

Roland Koch Roland Koch (born 24 March 1958) is a German jurist and former conservative politician of the Christian Democratic Union (Germany), CDU. He was the 7th Minister-President, Minister President of Hesse from 7 April 1999, immediately becoming the 5 ...

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. It ...

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 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 ...

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 Andrea Ypsilanti (' Dill; born 8 April 1957) is a German politician. Political career Ypsilanti was a member of the Hesse, Hessian ''Landtag'' (parliament) and served as chairperson of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic ...

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 of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as member of the management board of Deutsche Gesellschaft fü ...

seeking fresh elections. CDU leader

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 ,

(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 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= 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 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...