The 2008 Lower Saxony state election was held on 27 January 2008 to elect the members of the 16th

Landtag of Lower Saxony The Lower Saxon Landtag () or the Parliament of Lower Saxony is the state diet of the German state of Lower Saxony. It convenes in Hanover and currently consists of 146 members, consisting of four parties. Since 2022 the majority is a coalitio ...

. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) 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. I ...

Christian Wulff Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff (; born 1959) is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously served as minister president of the ...

was re-elected with a reduced majority.

Campaign

Lower Saxony was seen as a stronghold of the Christian Democratic Union and their leader

was seen as likely to easily defeat the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

. The election in Lower Saxony took place on the same day as the 2008 Hessian state election; Wulff was seen as a more moderate leader than

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 ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

and consequently more likely to perform better in the election. The CDU government had held spending down, introduced tuition fees for

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

students, while supporting the minimum wage. The Social Democrats (SPD) led their

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

with a call for a national minimum wage for all workers. The SPD leader in Lower Saxony,

Wolfgang Jüttner Wolfgang Jüttner (born 21 March 1948 in Lüdersfeld) is a German politician, representative of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He was his party's candidate for position of chief of state of Lower Saxony in 2008. After his election defeat, he ...

, was little known to voters and unusually during the campaign made an attack on Wolff for his personal life.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 15th Landtag of Lower Saxony.

Opinion polling

Election result

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! Seats % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align= 1,455,687 , align= 42.5 , align= 5.8 , align= 68 , align= 23 , align= 44.7 , - , 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= 1,035,894 , align= 30.3 , align= 3.1 , align= 48 , align= 15 , align= 31.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Free Democratic Party (FDP) , align= 279,557 , align= 8.2 , align= 0.1 , align= 13 , align= 2 , align= 8.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , align= 273,934 , align= 8.0 , align= 0.4 , align= 12 , align= 2 , align= 7.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , The Left (Linke) , align= 243,106 , align= 7.1 , align= 6.6 , align= 11 , align= 11 , align= 7.2 , - ! colspan=8, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , National Democratic Party (NPD) , align= 52,817 , align= 1.5 , align= 1.5 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Others , align= 81,557 , align= 2.4 , align= , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - ! align=right colspan=2, Total ! align= 3,422,552 ! align= 100.0 ! align= ! align= 152 ! align= 31 ! align= , - ! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout ! align= ! align= 57.0 ! align= 10.0 ! align= ! align= ! align=

Outcome

The results saw the Christian Democratic Union easily defeat the Social Democrats, despite suffering a drop in votes and seats. As a result, their leader Christian Wulff was seen as having strengthened his chances of succeeding national CDU leader

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

. The 30.3% of the vote that the Social Democrats won was the worst performance by the party in Lower Saxony since the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, which was described as a 'disaster' for the party. Turnout in the election was 57%. The Left entered the Landtag for the first time with 7.1% of the vote, comfortably exceeding the 5% electoral threshold. Along with the election in Hesse held on the same day in which The Left also won seats, this was the first time they had achieved representation in any large state in western Germany.

References

{{Lower Saxony state election

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...