State election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 1998

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← 1994State election 19982002 →
(Second votes in%)
 %
40
30th
20th
10
0
34.3
30.2
24.4
2.9
2.7
1.6
1.4
1.1
1.4
Otherwise.
Gains and losses
compared to 1994
 % p
   6th
   4th
   2
   0
  -2
  -4
  -6
  -8th
+4.8
-7.5
+1.7
+2.9
-1.0
-2.2
+1.4
+1.0
-1.1
Otherwise.
   
A total of 71 seats

The state election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 1998 was the third election of the state parliament since the re-establishment of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . It took place on September 27, 1998 , at the same time as the general election. The SPD became the strongest party for the first time, while the CDU was the loser in the election and the PDS consolidated its position as the third party in parliament. All other parties failed at the five percent hurdle . After the state elections, the first red-red coalition of the SPD and PDS came about in Germany. Harald Ringstorff became Prime Minister .

Electoral process

The third state election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was carried out on the basis of the constitution of May 23, 1993 and the state election law for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of December 14, 1993. The electoral process provided for a first and a second vote ; the distribution of the 71 mandates was decided solely on the proportion of the second votes; it was calculated using the Hare-Niemeyer method . The five percent hurdle and a basic mandate clause applied to three direct mandates won. The legislative period was four years.

initial situation

The grand coalition stood for election under the Christian Democratic Prime Minister Berndt Seite , which was characterized by permanent tensions and failures. Since the state elections in 1994 , only three parties have been represented in the Schwerin state parliament, the PDS was the only opposition party. Both the FDP and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen as well as the right-wing extremist parties failed because of the threshold clause in the last election.

Election campaign

The top candidates for the 1998 state elections were Prime Minister Berndt Seite for the CDU, Harald Ringstorff for the SPD and Helmut Holter for the PDS. In the election campaign, both the SPD and the PDS signaled the possibility of cooperation. The CDU therefore saw the greatest danger in a strong PDS and tried on the one hand to sharpen its profile as an East German regional party, on the other hand to distance itself from the red socks campaign of the federal party. In view of the federal trend to the detriment of the Union, an unemployment rate in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of between 20 and 30 percent and constant coalition quarrels, this strategy was unsuccessful.

Result

The 1998 state election was strongly influenced by the federal election that took place on the same day. This was marked in advance by a strong polarization between Union and Social Democrats, a constituency focus on the two major parties meant. The result of the Bundestag election showed a clear willingness to change, with gains for the SPD and even greater losses for the Union. This tendency was also reflected in the result of the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The increase in voter turnout in the state elections from 72.9 percent to 79.4 percent was also due to the federal election . This high value also tended to favor the large parties over the smaller ones.

While the SPD gained significantly by 4.8 percentage points and was the strongest parliamentary group in the state parliament for the first time, the CDU was the clear loser of the election with a loss of 7.5 percentage points compared to 1994. The PDS consolidated its position as the third force in parliament by increasing it by 1.7 percentage points to 24.4 percent. This made the PDS the third party in this election with the highest share of the vote of all state elections in the Federal Republic (see results of the state elections in the Federal Republic of Germany ). Alliance 90 / The Greens lost another percentage point compared to 1994 and, at 2.7 percent, remained well below the five percent threshold and its national average. The FDP failed even more clearly, losing 2.3 percentage points and falling back to the level of a splinter party with a result of 1.6 percent. The right-wing extremist parties DVU (2.9 percent), NPD (1.1 percent) and Republicans (0.5 percent) also all failed. Thus it remained in the Schwerin state parliament with a three-party system. The SPD won 27 mandates, the CDU 24 and the PDS 20.

Eligible voters 1,404,552
Voters 1,115,634
voter turnout 79.4%
Valid first votes 1,073,996 (96.3%)
Invalid first votes 41,638 (3.7%)
Valid second votes 1,084,611 (97.2%)
Invalid second votes 31,023 (2.8%)
First
votes
absolutely 		Share
in% 		Second
votes
absolutely 		Share
in% 		Direct
MAN
date 		List-
MAN
date
Total seats		 Gains /
losses
SPD 392.774 36.6 371.885 34.3 20th 7th 27 +4
CDU 346,581 32.3 327.948 30.2 14th 10 24 –6
PDS 273,681 25.5 264,299 24.4 2 18th 20th +2
DVU 31,194 2.9
GREEN 22,954 2.1 29,240 2.7
FDP 20,403 1.9 17,062 1.6
Per DM 15,619 1.4
NPD 1,346 0.1 11,531 1.1
REP 4,560 0.4 5,809 0.5
FROM 2000 5,349 0.5 4,225 0.4
GRAY 814 0.1 2,649 0.2
BfB 1,974 0.2
PBC 244 0.0 1,176 0.1
Individual applicants 5,290 0.5

Government formation

Harald Ringstorff (1990)

In view of the election result, the SPD top candidate Harald Ringstorff was Prime Minister-designate. He was state chairman of the SPD since 1990, parliamentary group chairman from 1990 to 1994 and again since 1996 as well as Minister for Economy and Affairs of the European Union from 1994 to 1996. The balance of power allowed the SPD to continue the coalition with the CDU, this time being the head of government as well as an alliance with the PDS.

Ringstorff had already flirted openly with a left alliance under his leadership in 1994, this time a coalition with the PDS actually came about. During the coalition negotiations , the PDS was hardly able to push through any demands. Only the regular request to the Gauck authority for public service employees was suspended. The party received the three ministries for labor and construction, social affairs and the environment. The SPD-PDS government was the first red-red coalition in the Federal Republic of Germany. Before that, the Höppner I cabinet in Saxony-Anhalt was only a red-green minority government from 1994 to 1998 that was tolerated by the PDS (the so-called Magdeburg Model ). The participation of the SED successor party, the PDS, provoked heated discussions nationwide. Critics spoke of a “taboo break” or a “fall from man”, others of a “normalization” in dealing with a democratically elected party that received almost a quarter of the votes. From a strategic point of view, Ringstorff saw in the alliance, not least of all, an opportunity to “disenchant” the opposition party PDS by integrating it into the government. When Ringstorff was elected Prime Minister, eight members of his own camp refused to vote. This was taken as a clear indication of the reluctance in parts of their own party to cooperate with the post-communist PDS.

See also

literature

  • Steffen Schoon: Voting behavior and political traditions in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania (1871–2002) , Droste, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 3770052838
  • Karsten Grabow : The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In: Parties and party systems in the German states. Edited by Oskar Niedermayer, Uwe Jun and Melanie Haas, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften / GWV Fachverlage GmbH, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-90912-7 , pp. 265–290.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Election to the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on September 27, 1998 The state returning officer of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
  2. ↑ Election to the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on October 16, 1994 Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, The State Returning Officer
  3. ↑ a b Karsten Grabow: The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Parties and party systems in the German states , edited by Uwe Jun, Melanie Haas and Oskar Niedermayer, GWV, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 266.
  4. ↑ a b c Karsten Grabow: The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Parties and party systems in the German states , edited by Uwe Jun, Melanie Haas and Oskar Niedermayer, GWV, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 269.
  5. ↑ a b c Karsten Grabow: The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Parties and party systems in the German states , edited by Uwe Jun, Melanie Haas and Oskar Niedermayer, GWV, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 270.
  6. ↑ a b c d Karsten Grabow: The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Parties and party systems in the German states , edited by Uwe Jun, Melanie Haas, Oskar Niedermayer, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 271.
  7. ↑ a b Karsten Grabow: The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Parties and party systems in the German states , edited by Uwe Jun, Melanie Haas, Oskar Niedermayer, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 265. [Further literature on this debate is specified there under note 2]

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