The 2008 Hessian state election was held on 27 January 2008 to elect the members of the Landtag of Hesse. The incumbent Christian Democratic Union (CDU) government led by Minister-President Roland Koch lost its majority. The result of the election was extremely close but inconclusive, with the CDU winning just 3,500 votes (0.1%) more than 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). Due to the entrance of The Left to the Landtag, neither the CDU– FDP or SPD– Green bloc garnered a majority. After a year of failed attempts to form government, a new election was held.

Background and issues

The CDU won a majority in the 2003 state election, but lost popularity in the following years. In the 2008 election campaign, CDU Minister-President Roland Koch took a tough stance against immigrant youth violence as an electoral tactic. The political left criticised this as xenophobic. Other issues included

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

concerns, education, and controversy over the planned major expansion of the

Rhine-Main airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...

. The formation of The Left meant that a party to the left of the SPD and Greens stood a serious chance of entering the Landtag for the first time in decades. The party polled between 4 and 6 per cent in the lead-up to the election; it was unclear if the party would exceed the 5% threshold. Polling data narrowed as the election approached; both the CDU and SPD and their junior partners the FDP and Greens were essentially tied. This meant that, if The Left entered the Landtag, it may hold the balance of power and make government formation difficult.

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= 1,009,775 , align= 36.8 , align= 12.0 , align= 42 , align= 14 , align= 38.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(SPD) , align= 1,006,264 , align= 36.7 , align= 7.6 , align= 42 , align= 9 , align= 38.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...

(FDP) , align= 258,550 , align= 9.4 , align= 1.5 , align= 11 , align= 2 , align= 10.0 , - , 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= 206,610 , align= 7.5 , align= 2.6 , align= 9 , align= 3 , align= 8.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , The Left (Linke) , align= 140,769 , align= 5.1 , align= 5.1 , align= 6 , align= 6 , align= 5.5 , - ! colspan=8, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , The Republicans (REP) , align= 27,724 , align= 1.0 , align= 0.3 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Others , align= 93,267 , align= 3.4 , align= , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - ! align=right colspan=2, Total ! align= 2,742,959 ! align= 100.0 ! align= ! align= 110 ! align= ±0 ! align= , - ! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout ! align= ! align= 64.3 ! align= 0.3 ! align= ! align= ! align=

Outcome

The CDU's share of the vote fell to its lowest level since the 1966 election. The SPD, under its 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 ...

, increased its share of the vote substantially, from 29% to 37%; the SPD claimed victory as a result. The other winner was The Left, who narrowly entered the Hesse Landtag with 5.1% of the vote. This was the second western state legislature which the party had entered, the first being Bremen in 2007. The party also won seats in neighbouring Lower Saxony in an election held the same day. The SPD and the CDU both won 42 seats; the FDP won 11 and the Greens 9. With 56 seats needed for a majority, neither was able to form a government with their traditional partners. There was a several-month-long lull after the election. The Left was thus

kingmaker A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a royal or political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious and military means to influence the succession. Origina ...

, exactly the result it had hoped for. SPD leader Ypsilanti had long refused to negotiate with The Left, but in October 2008 began talks to include them in a three-party "red-green-red" coalition with herself as Minister-President. This was a controversial move which sparked a revolt in the SPD, as many members bitterly refused to participate in power-sharing with The Left. One day before the election for Minister-President in the Landtag, four members of the SPD parliamentary group indicated they would not vote for her, and called a vote of no-confidence on her leadership. After this point, it became clear a red-red-green coalition was not viable. New elections were subsequently scheduled for January 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hesse State Election, 2008 2008 elections in Germany

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