Local elections in Hesse 2001
The local elections in Hesse 2001 took place on March 18, 2001. Compared to the 1997 election , turnout fell by 13.1%. The SPD Hessen emerged from the election as the strongest municipal force, 0.4% ahead of the Christian Democrats . The CDU was able to gain a good 5%, while the other parties suffered massive losses.
Suffrage
Local councils are elected every five years in Hessen. This includes the election of the district councils , city council assemblies and municipal councils as well as the local councils . The members of the association chamber of the planning association for the Frankfurt / Rhine-Main conurbation are determined indirectly .
With the "Law to Strengthen Citizens' Participation and Local Self- Administration " of December 23, 1999, the local electoral law was completely reorganized and the possibility of accumulation and variegation was introduced. This tended to strengthen small parties and electoral rolls. The abolition of the 5% threshold also had the same effects.
Election campaign
In addition to the respective local issues, the election campaign was determined by federal and state political issues. In Hesse this was mainly the CDU donation affair of the CDU state association of Hesse. The expectation that this affair or that the CDU's campaign funds, which have been massively reduced due to the penalty payment, would reduce the Union's chances were not confirmed in the election results.
The far-right parties' performance was also observed with interest. In the previous local elections in 1997, Republicans had received 6.6% of the vote.
Results
4.49 million voters were eligible to vote and 52.9% voted. This meant a 13.1% drop in voter turnout compared to 1997.
The election in the districts and urban districts yielded the following results:
Political party | Result | change |
---|---|---|
CDU | 38.1% | + 5.1% |
SPD | 38.5% | + 0.5% |
GREEN | 9.1% | - 1.9% |
FDP | 5.2% | + 1.2% |
Groups of voters | 5.8% | - 0.1% |
Others | 3.3% | - 4.9% |
The right-wing parties collapsed in favor of the electorate. The Republicans lost 4.1 percentage points and came to 2.5% nationwide, the NPD Hesse fell from 0.6% to 0.2%.
For the results in selected Hessian cities see: