State election in Saarland in 1955

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← 1952State election 19551960 →
(in %)
 %
30th
20th
10
0
25.4
24.2
21.8
14.3
6.6
5.8
1.9
DSP
Otherwise.
Gains and losses
compared to 1952
 % p
 30th
 25th
 20th
 15th
 10
   5
   0
  -5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
+25.4
+24.2
-32.9
+14.3
-2.9
-26.6
+1.9
DSP
Otherwise.
      
A total of 50 seats
Election poster of the CDU

The state election on December 18, 1955 was the third election in the French protectorate of Saarland and the last election before the Saarland joined the Federal Republic of Germany .

Starting position

After the state elections in 1952 , the Christian People's Party of the Saarland (CVP) and the Social Democratic Party of the Saarland (SPS) formed a government coalition. From 1954 the CVP ruled alone.

As part of the Paris Treaties , the agreement between the governments of the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the Saar Statute was concluded in 1954 , which provided for a European Saar Statute: the Saarland would therefore remain economically linked to France and would be externally controlled by a commissioner from the Western European Union represented. A referendum was held on this statute on October 23, 1955, in which 67.7% of the Saarlanders rejected the statute.

As a result, Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann resigned. He was succeeded by the non-party Heinrich Welsch . The state elections were brought forward to December 1955.

In the run-up to the referendum, the parties voting for affiliation with Germany - the Saar Democratic Party (DPS), the German Social Democratic Party (DSP, later Saarland SPD ) and the Saar CDU - were approved. These were united in the Heimatbund . The DPS had been banned since 1951.

Suffrage

The seats were distributed proportionally using the D'Hondt method within the following constituencies :

There was a nationwide five percent hurdle. In contrast to the previous election, in which only people with Saarland citizenship (not recognized by the Federal Republic of Germany) could vote, residents who were born in Saarland or had lived in Saarland for at least five years were also eligible to vote.

Result

The votes and seats were distributed according to the official result as follows:


Saarbrücken constituency
Saarlouis constituency
Neunkirchen constituency		 Saarland as
a whole
number % Seats number % Seats number % Seats number % Seats
Eligible voters 250,591 167.381 246,416 664,388
Voters 223.185 89.1 153,564 91.7 223,447 90.7 600.196 90.3
Valid votes 219.233 98.2 150.270 97.9 219,676 98.3 589.179 98.2
Total seats 19 (18) * 13 18 (19) * 50
CDU 38,577 17.6 3 53,769 35.8 6th 57.179 26.0 5 149,525 25.4 14th
DPS 70,526 32.2 7 (6) * 26,807 17.8 2 45,269 20.6 4th 142,602 24.2 13 (12) *
CVP 41,925 19.1 4th 38,357 25.5 4th 48,376 22.0 4 (5) * 128,658 21.8 12 (13) *
DSP 32,039 14.6 3 14,637 9.7 1 37,738 17.2 3 84,414 14.3 7th
KP 15,456 7.1 1 7,371 4.9 15,871 7.2 1 38,698 6.6 2
PLC 16,773 7.7 1 6,040 4.0 11,472 5.2 1 34,285 5.8 2
DDU 1,869 0.9 1,452 1.0 1,800 0.8 5.121 0.9
CSU 1,139 0.5 1,338 0.9 1,318 0.6 3,795 0.6
ÜEVPS 929 0.4 499 0.3 653 0.3 2,081 0.4
* By decision of the Constitutional Commission on April 19, 1956, the DPS received an additional seat in the Saarbrücken constituency and the CVP lost one seat in the Neunkirchen constituency.

The allocation of seats to the constituencies was declared unconstitutional by a decision of the Constitutional Commission on April 19, 1956, because the Neunkirchen constituency had one more seat than the Saarbrücken constituency despite the lower number of eligible voters. The constituency of Saarbrücken received an additional seat that went to the DPS list, while the constituency of Neunkirchen lost one seat, which meant that one seat was lost on the CVP list there. As a result, the CVP lost one seat to the DPS.

consequences

The parties of the Heimatbund were able to win a clear majority of the seats and then formed a black-red-yellow coalition under the leadership of Hubert Ney (CDU), who was elected Prime Minister of a Heimatbund government on January 10, 1956 . The accession of the Saarland to the Federal Republic of Germany was decided in the Luxembourg Treaty of October 27, 1956.

See also

Web links

Commons : Saarland state election 1955  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Valentin Schröder: Germany since 1945: Saarland state elections. In: Elections in Germany. April 23, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Law No. 477 regarding the election of the Saarland Landtag on December 18, 1955 (PDF; 462 kB)
  3. ↑ Saarland Official Gazette of December 22, 1955 (PDF; 85 kB)
  4. ^ Publication of the decision of the Constitutional Commission of April 19, 1956 in the Saarland Official Gazette of April 20, 1956
  5. ^ Announcement by the regional returning officer of April 23, 1956 in the Saarland official gazette of April 25, 1956, page 513