State election in Hesse 2008

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(in %)

%

40

30th

20th

10

0

36.8

36.7

9.4

7.5

5.1

1.0

3.5

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2003

% p

8th

6th

4th

2

0

-2

-4

-6

-8th

-10

-12

-12.0

+7.6

+1.5

-2.6

+5.1

-0.3

+0.7

Otherwise.

A total of 110 seats

Left : 6
SPD : 42
Greens : 9
FDP : 11
CDU : 42

The elections for the 17th Hessian Landtag took place on January 27, 2008 at the same time as the Landtag elections in Lower Saxony . The result did not allow a coalition of the previously ruling CDU with the FDP, nor a takeover of government by the SPD and the Greens . After failed negotiations on the formation of a government, the state parliament was dissolved on November 19, 2008 following a motion by all parties and the approval of all 110 members of the state parliament. The new election required was held on January 18, 2009.

initial situation

State election 2003

In the state elections in 2003 , the CDU had won an absolute majority of the seats. The state government consisted of a single CDU government led by Prime Minister Roland Koch .

Result of the state elections on February 2, 2003
Political party	Share of second votes	Seats
CDU	48.8%	56
SPD	29.1%	33
Green	10.1%	12
FDP	7.9%	9
REP	1.3%	-
Others	2.8%	-

Turnout: 64.6%

Survey

The opinion polls predicted a loss of the absolute majority of the CDU. It was uncertain whether the CDU and FDP would jointly get a majority. Decisive should be the performance of the party Die Linke, which was seen in the polls between 4% and 6%.

	Forsa	Infra	FG	Infra	Emnid	Forsa	FG	Forsa	Infra	TNS	Forsa
date	22.01.	January 17	11.01.	09.01.	05.01.	12.12.	07.12.	26.09.	06.09.	07/24	28.06.
CDU	38%	38%	40%	40%	42%	41%	40%	43%	42%	40%	41%
SPD	38%	37%	36%	35%	32%	30%	34%	30%	32%	33%	27%
GREEN	7%	7%	7%	9%	10%	11%	9%	9%	10%	11%	11%
FDP	9%	8th %	8th %	9%	8th %	9%	7%	8th %	8th %	7%	9%
LEFT	5%	6%	5%	4%	5%	5%	6%	5%	4%	5%	6%
Other parties	3%	4%	4%	3%	3%	4%	4%	5%	4%	4%	6%

Candidates, election programs and coalition statements

The main topics of the election campaign were juvenile delinquency , minimum wages , education policy , energy policy and the planned Rhein-Main airport expansion. 17 parties were approved by the state election committee on November 30, 2007:

CDU

Roland Koch (CDU)

The CDU adopted its list of candidates for the state election at its state party conference on November 3, 2007. The election preparation committee presented a draft of the list of candidates on August 31, 2007. The top candidate was Prime Minister Koch. It was confirmed with 99.4% of the vote at the party congress. The CDU adopted its program under the title Hessen 2008–2013 - Government Program by the state executive on May 25, 2007 and at the state party conference on November 3, 2007. The CDU polarized in the election campaign with the poster campaign "Ypsilanti, Al-Wazir and the communists stop!" She was then accused of deliberately choosing the foreign-sounding names in order to also mobilize the votes of voters with xenophobic resentments. In addition, the designation of the Left Party as “Communists” was a defamation of the party. The personally hurtful tone of voice towards Tarek Al-Wazir (the top candidate of the Greens) and Andrea Ypsilanti (the top candidate of the SPD) is one of the reasons why coalition negotiations with the Greens and the SPD were unsuccessful after the election. The CDU also addressed the issue of internal security during the election campaign , in particular child, youth and foreigner crime . In school policy, the Union advocated shortening high school time from nine to eight years and supported the tripartite school system .
SPD

Andrea Ypsilanti (SPD)

The nomination of the top candidate of the SPD resulted from a multi-stage process. After Gerhard Grandke was not available as a candidate, Andrea Ypsilanti declared her candidacy in August 2006. As a result, the leader of the SPD parliamentary group, Jürgen Walter , who had previously supported Grandke and had explicitly renounced his own candidacy, changed his mind and also stood as a candidate.

The SPD, which was divided on the candidate question, postponed the nomination party congress and organized regional conferences in order to obtain the vote of the grassroots. Walter decided on this (non-binding) survey of the base. Two thirds of the subdistricts voted for Walter, but only a small absolute number of members.

On December 2, 2006, the state party congress of the SPD Hesse decided with a narrow majority (175 against 165 votes) in the second ballot for Andrea Ypsilanti and against the vote of the grassroots. In the election campaign, the SPD is promoting the minimum wage debate and is carrying out a signature campaign. It also called for the abolition of tuition fees and a massive expansion of renewable energies and the phase-out of nuclear power. She also campaigned for the expansion of Rhein-Main Airport, but called for a night flight ban .

The SPD and top candidate Ypsilanti repeatedly and categorically rejected any form of cooperation with the left. The fact that this statement was not adhered to due to the new " Hessian conditions " is comparable to the situation after the state elections in Hesse in 1983 . At that time, Holger Börner ruled out a collaboration with the Greens before the election, but formed the first Red-Green coalition two years after the election .

A week before the election, the former SPD economics minister and today's RWE supervisory board, Wolfgang Clement, criticized Ypsilanti's energy policy. He also indirectly advised against their choice in a newspaper column. As a result, there were calls for Clement to be expelled from the party. The SPD pointed out that Clement was a member of the RWE supervisory board and that the criticism was viewed as lobbying for RWE. Clement, however, explicitly affirmed that he would not vote for Ypsilanti. This view was later followed by the former Hessian SPD top candidate Gerhard Bökel .
GREEN

Tarek Al-Wazir (GREEN)

The Greens traditionally went into the election campaign with a dual leadership. Kordula Schulz-Asche and Tarek Al-Wazir headed the Greens list according to the decision of the state party conference. Like the SPD, they stood for a replacement of the CDU government, a strengthening of all-day schools and the increased use of renewable energies.
FDP: At their state representative assembly on June 23, 2007, the FDP elected Jörg-Uwe Hahn as its top candidate and adopted its list of candidates.; The goal of the election was to break the absolute CDU majority and prevent a majority from the SPD, Die Grünen and Die Linke. At the state party conference on October 27, 2007, the FDP spoke out in favor of a coalition with the CDU. At their state representative assembly on June 23, 2007 in Friedberg , the FDP adopted its program under the title Make Hessen stronger .
The left: The choice of the top candidate from Die Linke initially resulted in a surprising result. In place of the former Hessian DGB chairman Dieter Hooge , the qualified pedagogue Peter (“Pit”) Metz was elected with a majority of 81 to 59 votes at the state party conference in August 2007. Dieter Hooge was then no longer available as a candidate for the state parliament.; As a former DKP member, Metz made the headlines with current statements. He compared the order to shoot at the former GDR border with the regulations for German soldiers in Afghanistan and described himself as a communist. He also stated that he was aiming for a "system change". He also took a clear position against possible government participation in Hesse.; On September 4, 2007, he resigned from his candidacy - according to his own statement, without pressure from the party leadership in Berlin. Willi van Ooyen , who has been involved in the Hessian Easter March and Social Forum movement for many years, was chosen as the new top candidate . The state election program was decided at the program party conference on September 29, 2007 in Wiesbaden .
REP

The much-criticized CDU election poster

The Republicans' top candidate was Haymo Hoch from Jugenheim .
Animal welfare party: The top candidate of Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz - The animal protection party was Margitta Marcian from Hanau .
Civil rights movement Solidarity: The BüSo's top candidate was Alexander Hartmann from Wiesbaden .
PSG - Party for Social Equality: The only two candidates on the state list of the Party for Social Equality, Section of the Fourth International were Helmut Arens from Frankfurt am Main and Achim Heppding from Offenbach . The PSG strives to build an international workers' party that works “against the abolition of social and democratic rights and for overcoming unemployment and poverty”.
From now on ... Alliance for Germany

Official end result

4,370,463 people were eligible to vote in the state elections, 35,000 more than in the state elections in 2003. Almost a third of those eligible to vote were 60 years or older. The proportion of women was 51.7%. The 18 to 24 year old young voters had a share of 9%. 106,000 Hessians were allowed to cast their votes for the first time.

Projections

The election evening in the ARD began hopefully for the SPD and the Greens, as they were jointly predicted to have two more seats than the CDU and FDP. The Left Party came in at 4.7 percent and seemed to have little chance of moving in. At this point in time, the ZDF did not see a majority for red-green, which was confirmed more and more during the election evening. The other extrapolations from both channels were so tight that only the last extrapolation was able to show the balance of power between the CDU and the SPD almost at the same time as the preliminary official final result. For a long time the Left Party was measured at 5.0 percent, so that its entry was questionable.

The turnout was 64.3 percent and the number of voters 2,811,073. Five parties were elected to the state parliament, all other parties failed because of the five percent hurdle . The strongest party emerged from the elections with the CDU with 36.8%, closely followed by the SPD with 36.7%, but both parties received the same number of 42 seats each in the Hessian state parliament . The result meant a double-digit percentage loss of votes for the CDU. With its top candidate Andrea Ypsilanti , the SPD succeeded in compensating for the historic low of 2003. For the first time the party Die Linke succeeded in this election in Hesse as well as in the state elections in Lower Saxony in 2008 , which took place on the same day , to enter the state parliament of a western German state.

	Constituency votes				National votes
	agree completely	%	Electoral kreisbe- tors	Direct MAN date	agree completely	%	Seats
Eligible voters	4,370,463				4,370,463
Voters	2,811,073	64.32			2,811,073	64.32
Valid votes	2,730,185	97.12			2,742,959	97.58

CDU	1,068,358	39.13	55	28	1,009,775	36.81	42
SPD	1,047,051	38.35	55	27	1.006.264	36.69	42
FDP	196.004	7.18	55		258,550	9.43	11
GREEN	206.250	7.55	55		206.610	7.53	9
THE LEFT	106.975	3.92	55		140,769	5.13	6th
REP	39.126	1.43	50		27,724	1.01
FREE VOTERS	36,212	1.33	41		24,327	0.89
NPD	17,627	0.65	38		24.004	0.88
Animal welfare	8,833	0.32	14th		15,909	0.58
FAMILY	1,243	0.05	3		7,817	0.28
PIRATES	-				6,962	0.25
GRAY	717	0.03	4th		4,810	0.18
Referendum	238	0.01	2		3.130	0.11
The violets	-				2,380	0.09
UB	595	0.02	2		1,775	0.06
BüSo	361	0.01	2		1,118	0.04
PSG	-				1,035	0.04
Others	595	0.02	6th		-
Total	2,730,185	100	437	55	2,742,959	100	110

The elected MPs are listed in the list of members of the Hessian state parliament (17th electoral period) .

Failed government formation

Coalition negotiations

Shortly after the state elections, there were already indications that the formation of a coalition with a majority would be problematic. Since at least 56 out of 110 votes are required for a majority in the state parliament, a majority for the CDU or SPD was only possible with the votes of two smaller parliamentary groups or in a grand coalition . In all conceivable constellations, however, at least one of the parties involved had to contravene the coalition intentions expressed during the election campaign.

CDU: The desired coalition majority with the FDP was not achieved. A computationally possible Jamaica coalition made up of the CDU, FDP and GRÜNEN stood in the way of substantial substantive differences (such as the question of the expansion of Frankfurt / Main Airport or different energy concepts). In addition, the Hessian Greens had repeatedly accused the top candidate of the CDU in the election campaign because of his polarizing campaign on juvenile delinquency by foreigners and Roland Koch, in return, had also massively attacked the top candidate of the Greens, Tarek Al-Wazir (" Ypsilanti, Al-Wazir and the communists stop! ”).; Exploratory talks to form a coalition of CDU and SPD also failed after an emotional election campaign. Many media believed that such a solution would only be possible if Roland Koch renounced his candidacy for Prime Minister. In the meantime, the CDU Hessen had applied for an “opposition surcharge” according to Section 3 of the “Law on the legal status and financing of parliamentary groups in the Hessian state parliament”. Nevertheless, the CDU sole government under the leadership of Prime Minister Roland Koch remained in office after no candidate for the successor of Koch was proposed in the constituent state parliament session on April 5 and in the subsequent sessions.

SPD: A traffic light coalition made up of the SPD, FDP and GRÜNEN, initially preferred by the SPD after the elections, excluded the FDP even before the election. The liberals stressed that they only wanted to form a coalition with the CDU and otherwise remain in the opposition.; A coalition of the SPD, GRÜNEN and DIE LINKE was excluded from the SPD. The same initially applied to the toleration of an SPD-led minority government made up of the SPD and the Greens and tolerated by the DIE LINKE party. Unlike at the federal level, according to the Hessian constitution, the election of the Prime Minister is only possible with an absolute majority of the MPs. A minority government can only come about if the prime minister is also elected by members of parliament whose parliamentary group is not part of the actual governing coalition. After the FDP rejected a traffic light coalition, Ypsilanti initially sought a minority government made up of the SPD and the Greens with the votes of the left ( Magdeburg model ). On March 7, 2008, however, she announced that she would initially not run for office as prime minister.

Instead, the three parties agreed on a coordinated schedule. After an extensive series of regional conferences and local general assemblies, at which the future course was discussed in detail, and after trial votes by the parliamentary groups of Social Democrats, Greens and Left in September 2008, Ypsilanti achieved a possible majority for a change of government under their leadership. Finally, the SPD Hessen supported their course at a special party conference in Rotenburg an der Fulda with almost 98% of the votes. Between October 7 and 24, 2008 , coalition negotiations between the SPD and the Greens took place at the Mechtildshausen domain , the results of which at the respective party congresses (SPD November 1, Greens November 2), despite isolated criticism within the SPD, with great success Majorities of over 95% were accepted.

In the coalition agreements, the following so-called Ypsilanti cabinet was negotiated:

Office	Surname	Political party
Prime Minister	Andrea Ypsilanti	SPD
Deputy Prime Minister	Tarek Al-Wazir	GREEN
Hessian State Chancellery	Norbert Schmitt	SPD
Heart and sport	Manfred Schaub	SPD
Economy and regional development	Hermann Scheer	SPD
Environment, rural areas and consumer protection	Tarek Al-Wazir	GREEN
Transport and Europe	Günter Rudolph	SPD
Finances	Reinhard Kahl	SPD
Judiciary	Nancy Faeser	SPD
Cult	Priska Hinz	GREEN
Social	Petra Fuhrmann	SPD
Science and art	Lothar Quanz	SPD

Environmental and ecological issues were left to the Greens, the election campaign for a propagated energy revolution set Hermann Scheer provided as economy minister. Jürgen Walter, as Ypsilanti's internal opponent, was left empty-handed when the cabinet was formed. On November 3, one day before the planned election of Ypsilanti as prime minister, three other members of the SPD parliamentary group Ypsilanti - Jürgen Walter , Carmen Everts and Silke Tesch - announced their support alongside Dagmar Metzger , who had already publicly denied her consent . Ypsilanti therefore did not stand for election the next day, the formation of the red-green minority government had failed.

New elections: At the beginning of November 2008, all parties in the state parliament agreed on new elections after the failed government formation. The resolution to dissolve itself was made on November 19, 2008, in accordance with the constitution, with the consent of all 110 members of the state parliament. The required Hessian state elections in 2009 took place on January 18, 2009.

Executive state government

The constituent session of the Hessian state parliament for the 17th legislative period took place on April 5, 2008. Since no one stood for election to the office of Prime Minister , the CDU state government formed in 2003 under the leadership of Prime Minister Roland Koch - although formally resigned - remained in office. Article 113 of the Hessian state constitution provides that an incumbent state government continues to conduct official business until a new government capable of working is formed. Even after the early end of the 17th legislative period, the government remained in office until the constituent session of the 18th Hessian state parliament on February 5, 2009, when Koch was re-elected Prime Minister with a majority from the CDU and FDP.

Elective test

Several objections were raised against the validity of the election. The electoral examination court rejected these appeals and declared the election valid. The alleged allegations that Kassel's Mayor Bertram Hilgen had violated his duty of neutrality with his election campaign was just as unjustified by the electoral examination court, as was the allegation that film and photo bans in the polling station had violated the principle of public voting. On the other hand, the handover of voting computers before the end of the election at 6:00 pm was seen as a voting error. However, this error would not have affected the distribution of seats in the state parliament.

Voting machines

For the first time eight cities and municipalities used so-called electronic voting machines for around 100,000 eligible voters. These are intended to replace voting with a paper ballot paper. Immediately after the election, the Chaos Computer Club reported various irregularities. In some cases, the voting computers used were not stored as required, but were housed with election workers, were at times completely unsupervised or did not work. Election observers were hindered. The spokesman for the CCC Dirk Engling said: “The storage of voting computers overnight at home with local politicians is the nightmare scenario for an internal perpetrator manipulation, also according to the logic of the Hessian interior ministry. Even we could not have imagined something like that ”. The Hessian state returning officer Hannappel sees no need for a repetition of votes. Before the election , the Hessian State Court rejected an urgent application against the use of voting computers .

literature

Rüdiger Schmidt-Beck, Thorsten Faas: The Hessian state election of January 27, 2008. Return of the " Hessian conditions " , in: Journal for Parliamentary Questions, 1/2009, pp. 16–34.