The 2003 Bavarian state election was held on 21 September 2003 to elect the members to the 15th
Landtag of Bavaria
The Landtag of Bavaria, officially known in English as the Bavarian State Parliament, is the unicameral legislature of the German state of Bavaria. The parliament meets in the Maximilianeum in Munich.
Elections to the Landtag are held every f ...
. The
Christian Social Union (CSU) 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 ...
Edmund Stoiber
Edmund Rüdiger Stoiber (born 28 September 1941) is a German politician who served as the 16th Minister President of the States of Germany, state of Bavaria between 1993 and 2007 and chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, Christian So ...
achieved the largest majority in German history, winning 69% of the seats in the Landtag. This election was the first and to date only time a single party won a two-thirds
supermajority
A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...
of seats in any German state parliament. The CSU also won its largest proportion of the popular vote since 1974, at 60.7%.
The election was marked by a major decline in turnout, falling by almost 13 points to 57%. As a result, despite achieving its best result in decades, the CSU won 230,000 votes fewer than it had in the 1998 election.
Parties
The table below lists parties represented in the 14th Landtag of Bavaria.
Opinion polling
Election result
, -
! colspan="2" , Party
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
! Seats %
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left ,
Christian Social Union (CSU)
, align= 6,217,864
, align= 60.7
, align= 7.8
, align= 124
, align= 1
, align= 68.9
, -
, 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
For ...
(SPD)
, align= 2,012,265
, align= 19.6
, align= 9.1
, align= 41
, align= 26
, align= 22.8
, -
, 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= 793,050
, align= 7.7
, align= 2.1
, align= 15
, align= 1
, align= 8.3
, -
! colspan=8,
, -
, bgcolor=#007E82,
, align=left ,
Free Voters of Bavaria
The Free Voters of Bavaria (German: ''Freie Wähler Bayern'') is a conservative political party in Bavaria. It has served as part of the governing coalition there since the 2018 state election under the leading Christian Social Union. The term ...
(FW)
, align= 411,306
, align= 4.0
, align= 0.4
, align= 0
, align= ±0
, align= 0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left ,
Free Democratic Party (FDP)
, align= 263,731
, align= 2.6
, align= 0.9
, align= 0
, align= ±0
, align= 0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left ,
The Republicans (REP)
, align= 229,464
, align= 2.2
, align= 1.4
, align= 0
, align= ±0
, align= 0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left ,
Ecological Democratic Party
The Ecological Democratic Party (german: Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei, ÖDP) is a conservative and ecologist minor party in Germany. The ÖDP was founded in 1982.
The strongest level of voting support for the ÖDP is in Bavaria, where in ...
(ÖDP)
, align= 200,103
, align= 2.0
, align= 0.2
, align= 0
, align= ±0
, align= 0
, -
, bgcolor=#386ABC,
, align=left ,
Bavaria Party
The Bavaria Party (german: Bayernpartei, BP) is an autonomist, regionalist and conservative political party in the state of Bavaria, Germany. The party was founded in 1946, describes itself as patriotic Bavarian and advocates Bavarian independence ...
(BP)
, align= 77,390
, align= 0.8
, align= 0.0
, align= 0
, align= ±0
, align= 0
, -
,
, align=left , Others
, align= 43,562
, align= 0.4
, align=
, align= 0
, align= ±0
, align= 0
, -
! align=right colspan=2, Total
! align= 10,248,735
! align= 100.0
! align=
! align= 180
! align= 24
! align=
, -
! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout
! align=
! align= 57.1
! align= 12.7
! align=
! align=
! align=
Notes
Sources
Results of 2003 Bavaria state election
{{Bavaria state elections
Bavarian
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
2003 in Bavaria
September 2003 events in Europe