State election in North Rhine-Westphalia 2000

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1995State election 20002005
(in %)
 %
50
40
30th
20th
10
0
42.8
37.0
9.8
7.1
1.1
1.1
1.1
Otherwise.
Gains and losses
compared to 1995
 % p
   6th
   4th
   2
   0
  -2
  -4
-3.2
-0.7
+5.8
-2.9
+0.3
+1.1
-0.4
Otherwise.
    
A total of 231 seats

The election to the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia for the 13th electoral period took place on May 14, 2000. The SPD / Greens coalition, which has been in office since the 1995 election, under its Prime Minister Wolfgang Clement, who has been in office since 1998, stood for re-election. Jürgen Rüttgers was the top candidate for the CDU and challenged Clement . The election was influenced by the CDU donation affair and resulted in a continuation of the red-green state government (→ Clement II cabinet ).

initial situation

In the previous state elections in 1995 , the SPD received 46.0 percent of the vote (108 seats), the CDU 37.7 percent (89 seats) and the Greens 10.0 percent (24 seats). The FDP received 4 percent and failed to make it into the state parliament. The SPD could not continue its sole government with Prime Minister Johannes Rau , which had existed since 1980 , and formed a coalition with the Greens, from 1998 under the leadership of Clement.

The debate about the Garzweiler II open- cast lignite mine in 1997/98 led to a serious government crisis. At the beginning of 1998, however, the Greens decided to continue the government alliance with the SPD. Clements' decision after taking office in June 1998 to merge the justice and home affairs departments also caused controversy. The Greens criticized the decision; After a decision by the Constitutional Court in February 1999, Clement had to separate the departments again.

Election campaign

The SPD entered the election campaign without a coalition statement. Prime Minister Clement was hoping for an absolute majority, but apart from that, he could envisage both the continuation of Red-Green and a coalition with the FDP. The election goal of the CDU under Jürgen Rüttgers was to take over the government, if necessary together with the FDP. The Greens, led by Environment Minister Bärbel Höhn , campaigned for a continuation of the red-green coalition and countered Clement's ideas about a social-liberal coalition with the slogan “If you want red-green, you have to choose green”. The FDP with its top candidate Jürgen Möllemann hoped to return to the state parliament and went into the election campaign with the aim of becoming stronger than the Greens.

The election campaign was influenced by the CDU donation affair that came to light in late 1999 / early 2000 . Even if the North Rhine-Westphalian state party was less affected by the affair, it weighed heavily on their approval ratings. While it still achieved a peak value of 46% in the opinion polls in December 1999, it slipped to 32% in March 2000. An important topic in the state elections was the immigration policy of the red-green federal government. Jürgen Rüttgers campaigned against the federal government's planned introduction of the so-called green card with the heavily debated slogan “Children instead of Indians” .

Official end result

  • Eligible voters: 13,061,265
  • Voters: 7,409,399
  • Turnout: 56.73%
  • Valid Votes: 7,336,411 voters cast valid votes.
agree
completely
Share
in%
Electoral
kreisbe-
tors
Direct
MAN
date
Seats
SPD 3,143,179 42.84 151 102 102
CDU 2,712,176 36.97 151 49 88
FDP 721.558 9.84 151 24
GREEN 518.295 7.06 151 17th
REP 83,296 1.14 132
PDS 79,934 1.09 148
INDEPENDENT CITIZENS 22,059 0.30 55
pensioner 10,708 0.15 19th
MLPD 5,969 0.08 87
DMP 5,743 0.08 33
PBC 4.123 0.06 18th
Natural law 3,474 0.05 16
family 3,420 0.05 9
Animal welfare 3,075 0.04 7th
BüSo 2,530 0.03 27
NPD 2,357 0.03 11
ödp 1.923 0.03 10
DKP 1,722 0.02 15th
Women 1,541 0.02 6th
PETO 993 0.01 2
Germany 525 0.01 4th
HP 405 0.01 7th
ÖkoLi 304 0.00 4th
BGD 178 0.00 1
Non-voters 175 0.00 1
awareness 162 0.00 3
UAP 139 0.00 2
CM 104 0.00 1
Individual applicants 6344 0.09 20th
Total 7,336,411 1,242 151 231

The SPD received 13 overhang seats. For this, the CDU received 11, the FDP 4 and the Greens 2 compensation mandates.

Distribution of seats at the end of the electoral term: SPD 101, CDU 88, FDP 24, Greens 16, non-attached 2

Consequences

On May 21, 2000, the SPD and the Greens began coalition negotiations. Prime Minister Clement had previously only met for informal talks with the FDP candidate Möllemann. After more than two weeks of negotiations, the SPD and the Greens agreed on a coalition agreement on June 7th. On June 17 and 18, he was confirmed by party congresses of the SPD and the Greens, and on June 21, the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament re-elected Wolfgang Clement as Prime Minister.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Article on the state elections in 2000 on SPIEGEL Online
  2. www.wahlrecht.de
  3. SPIEGEL Online on June 7, 2000

Web links