The 2016 Baden-Württemberg state election was held on 13 March 2016 to elect the members of the 15th Landtag of Baden-Württemberg. The incumbent government of

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 *Gree ...

and 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) 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 ...

Winfried Kretschmann lost its majority. The Greens achieved a 6% swing and became the largest party in a state legislature for the first time. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which had previously been the largest party, lost a third of its voteshare and fell to second place.

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. ...

(AfD) contested its first state election in Baden-Württemberg, debuting at 15%. The SPD lost half its voteshare and fell to fourth place with 12.7%. After the election, the Greens formed a coalition with the CDU, and Kretschmann was re-elected as Minister-President.

Campaign and issues

The Greens campaigned to keep Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann in office. Their central issues were energy, economics, and education. The CDU aimed to put an end to the green-red state government and usher in its own leading candidate Guido Wolf to head the state government. Themes in focus for the CDU were education policy, internal security, and the issue of infrastructure, including high-speed internet. The SPD, led by Nils Schmid, wanted to win more votes to continue the existing government coalition with The Greens. The SPD's campaign mainly focused on "good jobs", educational equality, and more time for the family. The electoral goal of the FDP, led by Hans-Ulrich Rülke, was to repeat its entry into the state parliament and possibly be involved in a governing coalition. They promised better education, the strengthening of the local business, and improvement of mobility. The AfD party campaigned to be elected into the state parliament for the first time. Its leading candidate Jörg Meuthen saw migration policy as an important election issue, alongside education, security, and

energy transition The energy transition is the process of downshifting fossil fuels and re-developing whole systems to operate on low carbon energy sources. More generally, an energy transition is a significant structural change in an energy system regarding ...

. The election campaign was overshadowed by the European migrant crisis. In the crisis, Kretschmann supported the policies of Chancellor

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 ...

. Kretschmann said he saw no other person who could keep Europe together as Angela Merkel did. "Therefore, I pray every day that the Chancellor remains healthy." CDU candidate Wolf also emphasized support for Merkel's "European solution" in the crisis, but in February 2016 tried to win more conservative voters by a joint proposal along with Rhineland-Palatinate CDU candidate

Julia Klöckner Julia Klöckner (born 16 December 1972) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. ...

for daily refugee quotas and border centers for migrants, which put additional pressure on Merkel.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of Baden-Württemberg.

Opinion polls

;Key

Results

< 2011 > 2021 , - , colspan=7 , Landtag_BW_2016

, - ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="text-align:left; background:#e9e9e9; width:400px;", Party ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:center;" colspan="3", Popular vote ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:center;" colspan="3", Seats , - ! style="text-align:right; background:#e9e9e9; width:60px;", Votes ! style="text-align:right; background:#e9e9e9; width:40px;", % ! style="text-align:right; background:#e9e9e9; width:50px;", +/– ! style="text-align:right; background:#e9e9e9; width:30px;", Seats ! style="text-align:right; background:#e9e9e9; width:30px;", +/– , - ,
''Bündnis 90/Die Grünen'' , , 1,622,631 , , 30.3 , , 6.1 , , 47 , , 11 , - ,
''Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands'' – CDU , , 1,447,249 , , 27.0 , , 12.0 , , 42 , , 18 , - ,
''Alternative für Deutschland'' – AfD , , 809,311 , , 15.1 , , 15.1 , , 23 , , 23 , - ,
''Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands'' – SPD , , 679,872 , , 12.7 , , 10.4 , , 19 , , 16 , - ,
''Freie Demokratische Partei'' – FDP , , 445,430 , , 8.3 , , 3.0 , , 12 , , 5 , - ,
''Die Linke'' , , 156,211 , , 2.9 , , 0.1 , , 0 , , , - ,
''Allianz für Fortschritt und Aufbruch'' – ALFA , , 54,764 , , 1.0 , , 1.0 , , 0 , , , - ,
''Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei'' – ÖDP , , 38,509 , , 0.7 , , 0.2 , , 0 , , , - ,
''Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands'' – NPD , , 23,605 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , 0 , , , - ,
''Piratenpartei'' , , 21,773 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , 0 , , , - , style="background:white;", , , align=left , Other parties, , , , , , , , , , , - style="background:#e9e9e9;" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="2", ''Valid votes'' , 5,360,351 , 99.0 , 0.4 , colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="color:#bab9b9;", , - style="background:#e9e9e9;" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="2", Invalid votes , 51,950 , 1.0 , 0.4 , - style="background:#e9e9e9;" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="2", Totals and voter turnout , 5,412,301 , 70.4 , 4.2 , 143 , 5 , - style="background:#bab9b9;" , colspan="2" , Electorate , 7,685,778 , 100.00 , — , colspan=2, , - , colspan="11" style="text-align:left;", Source: Landeswahlleiter

Aftermath

In the prior election of 2011, the Green/SPD coalition obtained a majority (73 of 138) of votes 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 ...

, including two opposition votes; however after the 2016 vote, the coalition fell short of a majority, with a combined total of 66 seats (72 needed for a majority). Kretschmann's popularity propelled the Green Party to a gain of 11 seats, making history as the first time the Green party has been the largest party in State-level election results. However, the Greens' coalition partner, the SPD, lost 16 seats, thus depriving the Greens' of a clear majority of leftists. There were several possible and probable working majorities among the five parties in the Landtag. Expanding the existing coalition into a three-party "traffic light" coalition (green-red-yellow) by including the FDP would have given the administration a working majority of 6. Coalitions with AfD appeared unlikely: a CDU-AfD coalition would be 7 short of a majority in the

, so would have also needed to include the FDP to make a majority and remove Kretschmann as minister-president. Removal of Kretschmann was unlikely; CDU leader Guido Wolf briefly sought to get the Social Democrats into a right-of-centre coalition with the FDP (with Wolf as state minister-president), but his SPD counterpart Nils Schmid pointed out that such a coalition would frustrate voters due to the personal popularity of Kretschmann. If it were possible to elect the minister-president directly, Kretschmann would have won an outright majority according to polls; he was even favored by 45% of CDU supporters. In May 2016, the Landtag confirmed Kretschmann's leadership in a secret ballot. He won 82 votes leading a "green-black" coalition with a nominal majority of 89 Landestag members (Green 47, CDU 42). A similar "black-green" coalition headed by the CDU has governed in Hesse since the similarly indecisive 2013 elections, but this is the first time the Green Party is the lead coalition partner in a coalition with the CDU (previously, they led a coalition with the SPD). Kretschmann formed the Cabinet Kretschmann II as the state government.

References

External links

Electoral programs of all parties
Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg, in German {{DEFAULTSORT:Baden-Wurttemberg state election, 2016 2016 elections in Germany

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

March 2016 events in Germany