The 2018 Hessian state election was held on 28 October 2018 to elect the members of the Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and The Greens 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 ...

Volker Bouffier Volker Bouffier (born 18 December 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister President of the German state of Hessen from 31 August 2010 to 31 May 2022. From 1 November 2014 until 31 October 2015 ...

. The election was held two weeks after the

2018 Bavarian state election The 2018 Bavarian state election took place on 14 October 2018 to elect the 180 members of the 18th Landtag of Bavaria. The outgoing government was a majority of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), led by Minister President Markus Söder. ...

, which saw the CSU and

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) suffer major losses, with third parties making major gains. The result in Hesse was largely similar, with the CDU and SPD losing more than 20 percentage points between them, while the Greens and

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist * * * * * * * political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. I ...

(AfD) gained approximately 9 points each. The

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) and The Left also made gains. Compared to the 2013 election turnout fell by 5.9 points to 67.3%.https://statistik-hessen.de/l_2018/html/landesergebnis Official result Despite suffering the worst losses of any party, the CDU remained the largest party by a comfortable margin. The Greens and SPD each won 29 seats and 19.8% of the vote; the Greens moved into second place by an extremely narrow margin of just 66 votes. The AfD, which failed to win seats in 2013, won 13.1% and 19 seats. By entering the Landtag in Hesse, it became the only third party present in all sixteen state parliaments. The election was influenced by the poor condition of the federal government in the aftermath of the " asylum quarrel" in June/July and the crisis around

Hans-Georg Maaßen Hans-Georg Maaßen (born 24 November 1962) is a German civil servant and lawyer. From 1 August 2012 to 8 November 2018, he served as the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic security agency ...

in September. One day after the election, federal Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she would not seek re-election as CDU leader at the party convention in early December, nor seek her party's nomination as Chancellor candidate for the next federal election. The incumbent CDU–Green government was returned with a slim majority of one seat, and was subsequently renewed.

Background

The incumbent Hesse government coalition consisted of CDU and the Greens. The regional election for Hesse, along with the Bavarian state election held just two weeks before, was widely seen as a test for the ruling CDU/CSU and

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

coalition of Angela Merkel's fourth federal cabinet.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of Hesse.

Opinion polling

Results

, - bgcolor=#E9E9E9 , - , colspan=16, Landtag of Hesse 2018

, - ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" , Party ! colspan="5" , Constituency ! colspan="5" , Party list ! colspan="3" , Total seats , - !Votes !% !+/− !Seats !+/− !Votes !% !+/− !Seats !+/− !Seats !+/− !% , - , style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align="left" , Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align="right" , 843,068 , align="right" , 29.3% , align="right" , , align="right" , 40 , align="right" , , align="right" , 776,910 , align="right" , 27.0% , align="right" , , align="right" , 0 , align="right" , , align="right" , 40 , align="right" , , align="right" , 29.2% , - , style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" , , 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 ...

(Grünen) , align="right" , 517,904 , align="right" , 18.0% , align="right" , , align="right" , 5 , align="right" , , align="right" , 570,512 , align="right" , 19.8% , align="right" , , align="right" , 24 , align="right" , , align="right" , 29 , align="right" , , align="right" , 21.2% , - , style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align="left" ,

(SPD) , align="right" , 670,637 , align="right" , 23.3% , align="right" , , align="right" , 10 , align="right" , , align="right" , 570,446 , align="right" , 19.8% , align="right" , , align="right" , 19 , align="right" , , align="right" , 29 , align="right" , , align="right" , 21.2% , - , style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align="left" ,

(AfD) , align="right" , 362,210 , align="right" , 12.6% , align="right" , , align="right" , 0 , align="right" , , align="right" , 378,692 , align="right" , 13.1% , align="right" , , align="right" , 19 , align="right" , , align="right" , 19 , align="right" , , align="right" , 13.9% , - , style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align="left" ,

(FDP) , align="right" , 205,384 , align="right" , 7.1% , align="right" , , align="right" , 0 , align="right" , , align="right" , 215,946 , align="right" , 7.5% , align="right" , , align="right" , 11 , align="right" , , align="right" , 11 , align="right" , , align="right" , 8.0% , - , style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align="left" , The Left (Die Linke) , align="right" , 164,535 , align="right" , 5.7% , align="right" , , align="right" , 0 , align="right" , , align="right" , 181,332 , align="right" , 6.3% , align="right" , , align="right" , 9 , align="right" , , align="right" , 9 , align="right" , , align="right" , 6.6% , - , style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align="left" , Others , align="right" , 109,332 , align="right" , 4.0% , align="right" , ±0 , align="right" , 0 , align="right" , ±0 , align="right" , 187,423 , align="right" , 6.5% , align="right" , ±0 , align="right" , 0 , align="right" , ±0 , align="right" , 0 , align="right" , ±0 , align="right" , 0% , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 2,873,070 ! 100.0% ! ! 55 ! ! 2,881,261 ! 100.0% ! ! 82 ! ! 137 ! ! 100%

State government formation

Despite heavy losses inflicted on the party, the CDU returned to government after negotiating a coalition agreement with the

Greens Greens may refer to: *Leaf vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, spring greens, winter greens, spinach, etc. Politics Supranational * Green politics * Green party, political parties adhering to Green politics * Global Greens * Europ ...

, the second consecutive such arrangement between the two parties. The two parties formed the narrowest possible majority in the

Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non- ...

, occupying 69 seats. As part of the agreement, the Greens increased their representation in the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

, holding four of the eleven portfolios. The returned coalition only became possible after a

recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

of votes took place several weeks after the election, due to computer glitches which affected some election night results. Following the recount, the state election commissioner announced that compared to the provisional figures, there were no significant shifts in the percentages, and the distribution of seats in the state parliament had not changed.

References

External links

Hessischer Landeswahlleiter
(Official website, German language)

( wahlrecht.de)
KOALITIONSVERTRAG
(Text of the CDU/Greens Coalition Agreement, German) {{2018 elections in Germany 2018 elections in Germany

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

October 2018 events in Germany