State election in Rhineland-Palatinate 2011

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← 2006State election 20112016 →
Turnout: 61.8%
 %
40
30th
20th
10
0
35.7
35.2
15.4
4.2
3.0
2.3
1.6
1.1
1.4
Gains and losses
compared to 2006
 % p
 12
 10
   8th
   6th
   4th
   2
   0
  -2
  -4
  -6
  -8th
-10
-9.9
+2.4
+10.8
-3.8
+0.4
+0.7
+1.6
-0.1
-2.2
Template: election chart / maintenance / notes
Remarks:
e 2006 WASG
f 2006 FWG
   
A total of 101 seats

The state election in Rhineland-Palatinate 2011 was the 16th election to the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament and took place on March 27, 2011. The election took place at the same time as the state elections in Baden-Württemberg and the local elections in Hesse and one week after the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt . On the same day, the mayors of Pirmasens and Worms and the district administrators of the Rhein-Lahn district and the district of Bernkastel-Wittlich were newly elected.

With a turnout of 61.8% (+3.6 percentage points compared to 2006), the SPD achieved 35.7%, the CDU 35.2% and the Greens 15.4%. All other parties missed their entry into the state parliament. After this election, the SPD and the Greens formed a coalition under Prime Minister Kurt Beck (SPD) , who had been in power since 1994 .

Starting position

In the state elections on March 26, 2006 , the SPD succeeded in gaining an absolute majority in the state parliament with a result of almost 800,000 state votes (45.6%) with 3,075,577 eligible voters . In addition to the SPD (53 seats), the CDU (38 seats) and FDP (10 seats) were represented. With 4.6%, the Greens missed their entry into the state parliament. The fifth largest force in the country was the WASG with 2.6%. The fact that only three parties entered the state parliament and a high proportion of the vote went to parties that did not overcome the 5 percent hurdle meant that the SPD won 52.5% of the seats with 45.6% of the votes. Even on the part of the SPD, the election result was rated as exceptional, so that it was not expected that such a result could be maintained. This assessment continued to result from the party's national trend, although the results between the Bundestag and European elections on the one hand and the state parliament elections on the other in the last elections were always far apart.

In the 2009 Bundestag election , the SPD in Rhineland-Palatinate lost more than 300,000 votes compared to the 2005 Bundestag election . At that time the CDU reached 35% in Rhineland-Palatinate and was thus well ahead of the SPD (23.8%). The FDP (16.6%), the Greens (9.7%) and the Left (9.4%), whose regional association, as the successor to the WASG, took part in a state election for the first time in 2011 , also received more than 5% . The strongest party under 5% in the 2009 federal election were the pirates (1.9%), who ran for the first time in the state election in Rhineland-Palatinate in 2011.

Polls indicated that the SPD would lose its absolute majority in the 2011 state elections; a loss of the relative majority could not be ruled out either (survey results below).

Election result

According to the official result, the votes are distributed among the parties as follows:

Political party Constituency
votes 		Share
in% 		Direct
mandates 		National
voices 		Share
in% 		Seats Seats
2006
SPD 699,572 37.71 23 666.817 35.69 42 53
CDU 684.065 36.87 28 658.474 35.25 41 38
Green 263,703 14.21 288,489 15.44 18th
FDP 82,340 4.44 79,343 4.25 10
The left 60,044 3.24 56,054 3.00
Free voters 35,360 1.91 43,348 2.32
PIRATES 8,806 0.47 29,319 1.57
NPD 7,282 0.39 20,586 1.10
REP 7,646 0.41 15,600 0.84
ödp 4,706 0.25 6,997 0.37
ddp 1,656 0.09
BüSo 183 0.01 1,504 0.08
PBC 279 0.02
Jansen * 413 0.02
independent of party * 733 0.04
totally
valid votes 		1,855,136
 		 100.00
97.19		 51
 		 1,868,187
 		 100.00
97.88		 101
 		 101
 
invalid votes 53,598 2.81 40,547 2.12
Voter
turnout 		1,908,734
 		 100.00
61.81		 1,908,734
 		 100.00
61.81
Non-voters 1,179,465 38.19 1,179,465 38.19
Eligible voters 3,088,199 100.00 3,088,199 100.00

* Individual applicants

With almost 10 percentage points, the SPD lost a lot more than forecast compared to 2006, the CDU gained slightly and almost equaled the SPD. The Greens were able to more than triple their result from 2006, while the FDP just failed to reach the five percent hurdle . The left clearly missed entry into the state parliament. Since Prime Minister Beck rejected a coalition with the CDU, a red-green and a black-green coalition were possible. The day after the election, the Green Party Council decided to explore prospects for coalition negotiations with the SPD, but also to accept an offer from the CDU.

Parties

State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate in the Deutschhaus in the state capital Mainz

The following parties were admitted to the state election with their lists (top candidates in brackets, numbering on the ballot):

  1. SPD ( Prime Minister Kurt Beck )
  2. CDU ( Julia Klöckner )
  3. FDP ( Herbert Mertin )
  4. Greens ( Eveline Lemke and Daniel Köbler )
  5. Die Linke (Robert Drumm and Tanja Krauth)
  6. REP (Norbert Hauck)
  7. NPD (Dörthe Armstroff)
  8. ödp (Rainer Hilgert)
  9. ddp (Hans-Joachim Selzer)
  10. BüSo (Barbara Spahn)
  11. Free voters ( Manfred Petry )
  12. PIRATES (Angelo Veltens and Antje Krause )

The FDP and Free Voters competed with four district lists, the other parties with state lists.

Five parties were not approved by the state election committee due to a lack of support signatures or had withdrawn their officially announced lists: the Christian faithful party , Die Violetten , the Pensioners Party Germany , the Sarazzi Party - for referendums and the Animal Welfare Party .

Election campaign

Street election campaign in Ludwigshafen

The CDU top candidate in the 2006 state elections, Christoph Böhr , has been accused since the end of 2008 of partially financing the election campaign from taxpayers' money and thus violating the rules of party funding . CDU top candidate Julia Klöckner emphasized that Böhr had "duped her" and that she wanted the maximum sentence from the President of the Bundestag for her regional association. An investigative committee of the state parliament deals with the financial behavior of the CDU, another examines the role of the incumbent SPD state government in financing the amusement park at the Nürburgring .

The chairman of the NPD in the Westerwaldkreis admitted to having forged 32 support signatures. This made the constituency candidacy invalid. The party no longer submitted a valid application. The state list was not affected.

On the evening of March 16, 2011, a television duel between the top candidates of the popular parties , Kurt Beck and Julia Klöckner, took place in Rhineland-Palatinate for the first time . It was broadcast by the SWR .

Electoral system

Constituencies in Rhineland-Palatinate with winners of direct mandates. Red = SPD  ; Gray = CDU

As in the federal election, each voter has two votes. The first vote with which a direct candidate is elected is called the constituency vote. With the second vote, which is called the state vote, a party or electoral association is elected and this is decisive for the allocation of seats in the state parliament.

Allocation of seats

Only those parties that receive at least 5% of the national votes are taken into account when allocating seats. There is no basic mandate clause like there is for the Bundestag election. The number of seats is generally 101, whereby the seats that are taken by direct candidates whose party failed the five percent hurdle , for example because of non-participation or non-admission, or who took up non-party positions, out of the total number subtracted from. 51 seats are filled by direct mandates. If one party receives more direct mandates than it is entitled to based on proportional representation , the other parties receive compensatory mandates . This may increase the total number of seats.

For the distribution of seats on the state and district lists, instead of the previous proportional method according to Hare / Niemeyer, the divisor method with standard rounding according to Sainte-Laguë / Schepers was introduced for the first time in the 2011 state election .

Polls before the election

Parties

In the run-up to the state elections, several opinion research institutes carried out representative polls of voting intent .

Institute
 date
 SPD
 CDU
 FDP
 GREEN
 LEFT
 Others
Emnid 03/25/2011 38% 35% 5% 13% 4% 5%
Research group elections 03/18/2011 37% 35% 5% 13% 4% 6%
Infratest dimap 03/17/2011 36% 36% 5% 13% 4% 6%
Psephos 03/15/2011 40% 35% 5% 10% 4% 6% (*)
Emnid 02/20/2011 38% 35% 5% 12% 5% 5%
Infratest dimap 02/17/2011 38% 36% 5% 12% 4% 5%
Emnid 02/06/2011 38% 36% 4% 13% 5% 4%
Research group elections 04/02/2011 37% 35% 5% 13% 4% 6%
Infratest dimap 01/27/2011 37% 37% 5% 13% 5% 3%
Emnid December 19, 2010 39% 37% 4% 11% 4% 5%
Infratest dimap December 09, 2010 35% 35% 5% 16% 5% 4%
Infratest dimap 09/23/2010 36% 34% 4% 16% 5% 5%
Psephos 09/16/2010 42% 34% 6% 08th % 5% 5%
Infratest dimap 04/22/2010 35% 37% 8th % 11% 5% 4%

(*) including 2% rights, 1% free voters

Candidates

Kurt Beck, 2010
Julia Klöckner, 2010

When asked who would the people of Rhineland-Palatinate elect to be Prime Minister directly, the respondents answered as follows:

Institute
 date
 Beck
(SPD) 		Klöckner
(CDU) 		another)
 I do not know
Research group elections 03/27/2011 52% 35% ? ?
Infratest dimap 03/27/2011 57% 35% ? ?
Infratest dimap 03/10/2011 49% 33% 8th % -
Research group elections 04/02/2011 48% 35% - 17%
Infratest dimap 01/27/2011 50% 34% 16% -
Infratest dimap December 09, 2010 53% 32% 15% -
Infratest dimap 09/23/2010 54% 32% 14% -
Psephos 06/22/2010 55% 25% 20% -
Infratest dimap 04/22/2010 53% 34% 13% -

Desired coalition

In the surveys, the question of the preferred government coalition was also asked.

Institute
 date
 Red Green
 SPD
 black yellow Red Yellow Big coalition
Infratest dimap 03/10/2011 17% - 14% 5% 8th %
Infratest dimap 02/17/2011 22% - 14% 4% 11%
Infratest dimap 01/27/2011 22% 9% 11% 3% -
Infratest dimap 09/23/2010 24% 12% 10% 4% -
Infratest dimap 04/22/2010 18% 13% 14% 6% -

Election analysis

At first glance, the election was shaped by issues of state politics, as the research group Elections found out in surveys: Education and unemployment were named as central problem areas in the state with 29 percent and 21 percent respectively. Only 19 percent named nuclear policy as an important field of activity, in contrast to those surveyed in the neighboring state of Baden-Württemberg, in which 41 percent said the topic was important for the state elections taking place there at the same time. Nevertheless, the influence of the nationwide nuclear policy debate on the state elections should not be underestimated: For 51 percent of those surveyed, nuclear policy was ultimately a key issue.

This finding is in line with the results of a survey by Infratest dimap: For 38 percent, environmental / energy policy was the key issue, just ahead of economic policy (32 percent) and education policy (26 percent). Social justice was a crucial issue for 25 percent.

In particular among voters for the Greens and the SPD, the topic of “environmental and energy policy” was ranked above the other topics of social justice, education and economic policy with 84 and 37 percent respectively. For CDU and FDP voters, on the other hand, economic policy dominated the election with 43 and 60 percent respectively. This goes hand in hand with the fact that, especially in the FDP, those voters who could not identify with the party's nuclear policy turned their backs: The numerous FDP emigrants mainly named energy and environmental policy as the reason for switching to another party .

In the case of the five major parties, the question of social justice was only decisive for the voters of the Left Party.

Most voters, however, did not allow themselves to be influenced by the then recurring nuclear debate: 32 percent of voters, and thus the largest group, stated that their voting decision had been made “a long time ago”. 15 percent said that they always vote for the same party anyway.

activity

Age group
 SPD
 CDU
 FDP
 GREEN
 LEFT
Workers 44% 27% 3% 12% 5%
Employees 34% 31% 4% 20% 3%
Self-employed 20% 42% 9% 18% 4%
pensioner 40% 44% 4% 8th % 2%
Unemployed 37% 33% 2% 9% 13%

Wahl-O-Mat

A Wahl-O-Mat was switched on for the state election . It has been used about 307,000 times.

See also

Web links

Commons : Politicians of Rhineland-Palatinate  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Ulrich Weidenfeller (Office of the State Returning Officer / Election Statistics): The state election is on March 27, 2011. State Returning Officer has a wide range of information ready ( Memento from June 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ http://www.election.de/cgi-bin/content.pl?url=/kw_kalender.html
  3. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate ( memento from January 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 14, 2011
  4. ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/landtagswahlen148.html ( Memento from August 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ [1]
  6. ↑ State Returning Officer for the approval of the state and district lists ( Memento from February 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Announcement of the state returning officer about the approved state and district lists for the election to the 16th state parliament Rhineland-Palatinate on March 27, 2011 ( Memento from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 136 kB)
  8. ^ Matthias Bartsch: Hidden Payments . In: Der Spiegel 52/2010, December 27, 2010.
  9. ^ Klaus-Peter Klingelschmitt: Election campaign in Rhineland-Palatinate - In the land of scandals . In: Die Tageszeitung , January 16, 2011.
  10. ↑ NPD district chairman in the Westerwald forged at least 32 signatures
  11. ↑ General newspaper on the TV duel ( memento from March 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Information from the Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate ( Memento from May 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) PDF, page 4
  13. ↑ a b c Infratest dimap - LandesTREND Rhineland-Palatinate April 2010 ( Memento from July 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
  14. ↑  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.forschungsgruppe.de
  15. ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/bilder/crbilderstrecke214_mtb-1_pos-2.html ( Memento from March 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ Interactive offer Politbarometer: Extra (February 4, 2011)  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on February 3, 2014. (offline)
  17. ↑ a b c Infratest dimap - LandesTREND Rhineland-Palatinate January 2011 ( Memento from November 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  18. ↑ http://www.swr.de/zur-sache-rheinland-pfalz/politrend/-/id=2248266/nid=2248266/did=7558546/hi0v6g/index.html
  19. ↑ DPA-InfolineRS: Elections: Analysis Rhineland-Palatinate: Beck prevents SPD crash. In: Focus Online . March 27, 2011, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  20. ↑  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / wahlarchiv.tagesschau.de
  21. ↑  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / wahlarchiv.tagesschau.de
  22. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from January 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )