The 2015 Bremen state election was held on 10 May 2015 to elect the members of the

Bürgerschaft of Bremen The Bremische Bürgerschaft (State Parliament of Bremen, literally “Bremish Citizenry” or “Citizenry of Bremen”) is the legislative branch of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen in Germany. The state parliament elects the mem ...

, as well as the city councils of Bremen and

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

. The incumbent government of 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 Fo ...

(SPD) and

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 ...

retained its majority. However,

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

and SPD leader Jens Böhrnsen resigned due to his party's poor performance, which was significantly below expectations. He was succeeded by fellow SPD member Carsten Sieling. Analysts expressed surprise about the low turnout (just 50.1%), the lowest since 1945 in a west German state, and concern about a particularly low turnout in impoverished areas, which was seen as an indication of disillusionment with politics in these demographics.

Background

Following the election in 2011, 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 ...

and Greens continued their coalition government from the previous legislative period. The composition changed several times since the last election following the death of Renate Möbius, Martin Korol took her place in the SPD caucus. He later left the party and sat as an independent before joining the

Citizens in Rage Citizens in Rage (german: Bürger in Wut (BIW)) is a German right-wing populist voters' association represented in the state parliament of Bremen. It is led by Jan Timke. It was founded in March 2004 as a successor to the Bremen section of the ...

. For the CDU, Oğuzhan Yazıcı replaced Elisabeth Motschmann when she was elected to the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

. There were personnel changes in the caucus of Alliance '90/The Greens as well.

Electoral system

Each voter may distribute five votes among party lists or candidates within them (

cumulative voting Cumulative voting (also accumulation voting, weighted voting or multi-voting) is a multiple-winner method intended to promote more proportional representation than winner-take-all elections such as block voting or first past the post. Cumulativ ...

and

panachage Panachage (, from French meaning "blend, mixture") is the name given to a procedure provided for in several open-list variants of the party-list proportional representation system. It gives voters more than one vote in the same ballot and allows ...

). The state of Bremen consists of two cities, Bremen and

. Of the 83 members of the state legislature, 68 are elected in Bremen, 15 in Bremerhaven. To be allocated seats from either Bremen or Bremerhaven a party must receive 5% of the vote or more in the respective city. In Bremen (but not in Bremerhaven), the same ballot is also used to determine the composition of the city legislature, also consisting of 68 members who in most cases are the same as Bremen's representatives in the state legislature. Differences may, however, arise since EU citizens resident in Bremen who are not also German citizens may vote in city legislature elections but not in state legislature elections. In the 2003 elections, the

2007 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2007. * Electoral calendar 2007 * Elections in 2007 * 2007 United Nations Security Council election Africa * 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress * 2007 Algerian legislative el ...

, and the current election, this led to one or more of Bremen's seats being allocated to different candidates in the state legislature and in the city legislature. The state government (Senate), the head of state government (President of the Senate), and the heads of the city governments (Mayor) are later elected by the respective legislatures. All Germans who have lived in Bremen for at least three months prior to the election are eligible to vote. As of the last election, the voting age is 16, the eligibility age 18. Non-German EU citizens resident in Bremen may vote in city legislature elections but not in state legislature elections which for German citizens in Bremen (but not in Bremerhaven) happen with the same votes on the same ballot.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Bürgerschaft of Bremen.

Opinion polls

Election result

, - ! rowspan="2" colspan="2" , Party ! rowspan="2" , Votes ! rowspan="2" , % ! rowspan="2" , +/- ! colspan="2" , Seats ! rowspan="2" , Total
seats ! rowspan="2" , +/- ! rowspan="2" , Seats % , - ! Bremen !

, - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(SPD) , align= 383,509 , align= 32.8 , align= 5.8 , align= 24 , align= 6 , align= 30 , align= 7 , align= 36.1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align= 261,929 , align= 22.4 , align= 2.0 , align= 16 , align= 4 , align= 20 , align= 0 , align= 24.1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , align= 176,807 , align= 15.1 , align= 7.4 , align= 12 , align= 2 , align= 14 , align= 7 , align= 16.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , The Left (Linke) , align= 111,485 , align= 9.5 , align= 3.9 , align= 7 , align= 1 , align= 8 , align= 3 , align= 9.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Free Democratic Party (FDP) , align= 76,754 , align= 6.6 , align= 4.2 , align= 5 , align= 1 , align= 6 , align= 6 , align= 7.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Alternative for Germany (AfD) , align= 64,368 , align= 5.5 , align= New , align= 4 , align= 0 , align= 4 , align= New , align= 4.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(BiW) , align= 37,759 , align= 3.2 , align= 0.5 , align= 0 , align= 1 , align= 1 , align= 0 , align= 1.2 , - ! colspan=8, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Die PARTEI (''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazi ...

(PARTEI) , align= 21,888 , align= 1.9 , align= 1.9 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Pirate Party Germany The Pirate Party Germany (german: Piratenpartei Deutschland), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the informa ...

(Piraten) , align= 17,773 , align= 1.5 , align= 0.4 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Human Environment Animal Protection The Human Environment Animal Protection Party (german: Partei Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz, short form: Animal Protection Party, german: Tierschutzpartei, links=no) is a political party in Germany, founded in 1993. In 2014 one candidate was elected ...

, align= 13,910 , align= 1.2 , align= 1.2 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , National Democratic Party (NPD) , align= 2,170 , align= 0.2 , align= 1.4 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - ! align=right colspan=2, Total ! align= 1,168,352 ! align= 100.0 ! align= ! align= 68 ! align= 15 ! align= 83 ! align= ±0 ! align= , - ! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout ! align= ! align= 50.2 ! align= 5.3 ! align= ! align= ! align= ! align= ! align=

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bremen State Election, 2015 Elections in Bremen (state) 2015 elections in Germany May 2015 events in Germany