State election in Hesse 1982
The elections for the 10th Hessian Landtag took place on September 26, 1982. Although the polling institutes had predicted an election victory for the Union, neither the CDU nor the SPD could achieve a majority. The background to this was the break in the social-liberal coalition in the federal government less than two weeks before the election. When the Greens entered the state parliament for the first time, the " Hessian conditions ", a minority government of the SPD, came about and new elections to the state parliament took place after just one year.
initial situation
In the previous state elections in 1978, the SPD and FDP achieved a majority of mandates with only minor postponements. This enabled the social-liberal coalition with Prime Minister Holger Börner to be continued and the incumbent had prevailed against his challenger, the CDU top candidate Alfred Dregger .
The state elections on October 8, 1978 brought the following results:
| Political party | Voting share | Seats |
|---|---|---|
| CDU | 46.0% | 53 |
| SPD | 44.3% | 50 |
| FDP | 6.6% | 7th |
In the following electoral period, the disputes over the Runway West at Frankfurt Airport took place. In doing so, Börner clearly distanced himself from the newly founded Greens. In particular, the quote attributed to Börner caused a stir: “I regret that my high office forbids me to hit the guys in the face myself. In the past, people used to do things like that with the roof lath in construction. ”On May 11, 1981, Börner's deputy and Minister of Economics Heinz-Herbert Karry (FDP) was shot by members of the Revolutionary Cells in his apartment in Frankfurt am Main.
In the state elections in Hamburg on June 6, 1982 , The Greens entered parliament there for the first time with the GAL . The opinion polls also indicated that they would move into Hesse. At the same time, the values for the social-liberal coalition that had ruled Hesse up to that point were dramatically poor, while the CDU seemed to have the chance of an absolute majority. On June 17, 1982, at a special party congress in Darmstadt, the FDP decided with 169 to 129 votes to end the previous cooperation with the SPD after the state elections and offered the CDU Hessen for a coalition. This meant the foreseeable end of the last social-liberal coalition at the state level and had an impact on federal politics. Although the federal FDP announced its will to continue the coalition in the federal government on June 18, Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt took a clear position against the Hessian FDP and stated in a SPIEGEL interview on July 1 that it would fail in Hesse he “don't tie any wreaths” to her because of her “wobbly policy”.
Election campaign
In the election itself, all of this was already overtaken by the now precipitous events in federal politics: the break-up of the social-liberal coalition in the federal government, the resignation of the liberal federal ministers on September 17, 1982, less than two weeks before the election, and the upcoming election of Helmut Kohl as Federal Chancellor were the determining topics.
The SPD tried to make the election a protest election against politics in Bonn and simply put the sticker on the election posters they had already put up: “Treason in Bonn! Vote". The FDP advertised with the slogan "We create change".
Top candidates
The SPD ran with Prime Minister Holger Börner as the top candidate. The opposing candidate of the CDU was parliamentary group leader Alfred Dregger . The FDP's top candidate was Ekkehard Gries . The Greens went into the election campaign with a dual leadership. Dirk Treber and Gertrud Schilling headed the Green List.
Official end result
The state election on September 26, 1982 had the following outcome:
| Political party | agree completely |
percent | Electoral kreisbe- tors |
Direct MAN date |
Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eligible voters | 4,050,661 | ||||
| Voters | 3,498,407 | 86.37 | |||
| Valid votes | 3,465,493 | 99.06 | |||
| CDU | 1,580,989 | 45.62 | 55 | 33 | 52 |
| SPD | 1,483,930 | 42.82 | 55 | 22nd | 49 |
| GREEN | 278,450 | 8.03 | 55 | 9 | |
| FDP | 106.901 | 3.08 | 55 | ||
| DKP | 12,625 | 0.36 | 55 | ||
| EAP | 2,377 | 0.07 | 28 | ||
| Individual applicants | 221 | 0.01 | 1 | ||
| Total | 3,465,493 | 100 | 304 | 55 | 110 |
The FDP, which had already terminated the social-liberal coalition at the federal level, failed with 3.1% of the five percent hurdle , while the SPD and the Greens together achieved over 50% of the votes cast, but cooperation was (still) for both parties out of the question. Therefore there was no majority capable of governing in the Hessian state parliament. The previous Prime Minister, Holger Börner, headed an executive state government until the state parliament was dissolved and new elections were brought forward in September 1983.
Election analysis
According to analyzes by Infas, the result of the elections was primarily due to federal political issues. Against the background of federal political developments, the performance of the FDP was followed with interest. Infratest dimap found that the FDP had lost around 100,000 votes to both the CDU and the SPD. The FDP had lost another 60,000 votes due to abstention. The FDP had apparently been “punished” for breaking the social-liberal coalition at the federal level.
Consequences
Hesse
Alfred Dregger, who ran for the fourth time as the top candidate of his party in this election , drew the consequence from the fact that the CDU was able to improve in these four top candidates from 26 percent to results between 45 and 47 percent, but he could improve the office of the Prime Minister could not take over on the fourth attempt. He already announced his resignation as state chairman on election night. His successor Walter Wallmann offered the SPD on November 24, 1982 the formation of a grand coalition . However, Börner rejected the formation of such a company and remained in office in a managerial capacity, but without a majority in parliament. After his budget draft for 1983 failed and only a “preliminary budget law” had been passed with votes from Red-Green, the only way he could do was to bring about new elections. The press spoke about the difficulties of forming a government from the " Hessian conditions ". This alluded to the situation in Hamburg, where the election of the Greens did not result in a majority. There, new elections at the end of 1982 led to an absolute majority in the SPD and thus put an end to the “ Hamburg situation ”. The Greens distinguished themselves in particular by disregarding parliamentary rules. Frank Schwalba-Hoth caused a particular stir with his “blood injection attack”.
Beyond Hessen
The election result was generally interpreted as a memorandum for the FDP, which also sparked further discussions within the FDP. As a result, however, the FDP board stuck to the decision to change the coalition, so that Helmut Kohl was elected Chancellor on October 1, 1982 as planned.
Willy Brandt commented on the election result in the Bonn round on election evening with the formulation that there was a “majority on this side of the Union”, and thus for the first time indicated the possibility of red-green cooperation, to which Kohl, visibly concerned, replied that he, Brandt, want "another republic". Over the years, both key words determined the political locations.
The state election results in Hesse in 2008 and 2013 , which also did not produce a clear majority, were often referred to as "Hessian conditions".
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ State elections in Hesse 1946 - 2009 Hessian State Statistical Office
- ↑ GREEN preset value is the sum of both green parties
- ↑ Django with the latte . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 1982, pp. 38 ( online ).
- ↑ Power of love . In: Der Spiegel . No. 25 , 1982, pp. 21st f . ( online ).
- ↑ Hartmut Soell : Helmut Schmidt. 1969 to the present day - power and responsibility. DVA, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-421-05795-2 , p. 871.
- ↑ Soell, Helmut Schmidt , p. 873.
- ^ Friedrich Naumann Foundation
- ↑ State Gazette for the State of Hesse No. 43/1982, pp. 1902 ff.
- ↑ No winner in the Hessian state elections. In: FAZ of September 27, 1982, page 1
- ↑ Hubert Kleinert in one day
- ↑ Justus Bender, Thomas Holl: Hessian conditions again. In: FAZ.net . September 22, 2013, accessed October 13, 2018 .