Politics of Baden-Württemberg
The state of Baden-Württemberg has only existed since 1952 and is part of the political tradition of the historical states of Baden and Württemberg . Politically, Baden-Württemberg is conservative. From 1953 to 2011 the CDU led the state government without interruption, partly as the sole ruling party, partly in changing coalitions. But also the FDP (which is called FDP / DVP here ) and more recently DIE GRÜNEN or Alliance 90 / The Greens are traditionally strong here. After the state elections on March 27, 2011 , a green-red government was established for the first time in the state's history with Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) as Prime Minister.
Political structure
In addition to the actual state level, the state of Baden-Württemberg is divided into four administrative districts ( Freiburg , Karlsruhe , Stuttgart , Tübingen ) and, according to the 1973 reform, into 35 rural districts and 9 urban districts. There are 1108 cities and towns. Sometimes there are still local councils within the communities; many parishes emerged in the 1970s from the amalgamation of previously independent places. The independence awareness of individual districts is correspondingly high. There are many forms of cooperation between urban and rural districts, for example in special-purpose associations . These often correspond to the breakdown into regions ; However, only the Stuttgart region is actually politically significant .
State government
See also: State government of Baden-Württemberg
The first Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg came from the FDP, then followed for 58 years, from 1953 to 2011, an uninterrupted series of Prime Ministers appointed by the CDU, which was ended in 2011 by the first Green Party:
| Prime Minister of the State of Baden-Württemberg | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Surname | Life dates | Political party | Beginning of the term of office | Term expires |
| 1 | Reinhold Maier | 1889-1971 | FDP / DVP | April 25, 1952 | October 7, 1953 |
| 2 | Gebhard Müller | 1900-1990 | CDU | October 7, 1953 | 17th December 1958 |
| 3 | Kurt Georg Kiesinger | 1904-1988 | CDU | 17th December 1958 | December 16, 1966 |
| 4th | Hans Filbinger | 1913-2007 | CDU | December 16, 1966 | August 30, 1978 |
| 5 | Lothar Späth | 1937-2016 | CDU | August 30, 1978 | January 13, 1991 |
| 6th | Erwin the devil | * 1939 | CDU | January 13, 1991 | April 29, 2005 |
| 7th | Günther Oettinger | * 1953 | CDU | April 29, 2005 | February 9, 2010 |
| 8th | Stefan Mappus | * 1966 | CDU | February 10, 2010 | May 11, 2011 |
| 9 | Winfried Kretschmann | * 1948 | Green | May 12, 2011 | (-) |
The current state government (the “ Kabinett Kretschmann II ”) has been in office since it was sworn in on May 12, 2016 .
- 1952–1953: FDP / DVP , SPD and GB / BHE
- 1953–1960: CDU , SPD, FDP / DVP and GB / BHE (since 1956 after the KPD left the state parliament, thus as an all-party government)
- 1960–1964: CDU, FDP / DVP and GB / BHE (since 1961 GDP )
- 1964–1966: CDU and FDP / DVP
- 1966–1972: CDU and SPD
- 1972–1992: CDU (sole government)
- 1992–1996: CDU and SPD
- 1996–2011: CDU and FDP
- 2011–2016: Greens and SPD
- since 2016: Greens and CDU
Parliament
See: Landtag of Baden-Württemberg
Municipal level
Baden-Württemberg's municipal electoral law also has some special features. The mayors (or in larger cities: the mayors) are directly elected ( South German council constitution ) and are therefore independent of the composition of the municipal councils . Their term of office is eight years, so that mayoral elections do not usually coincide with elections in local parliaments. For this reason, among other things, formal party coalitions are rare in Baden-Württemberg municipal councils.
The local, community and city councils as well as district assemblies are elected every five years. The regional assembly of the Stuttgart region is also elected every five years .
For the 35 district councils, parties and electoral associations draw up lists in several constituencies. Each voter has as many votes as there are seats in the constituency. The lists can even contain one and a half times as many applicants. The choice itself can be cumulated and variegated , i.e. H. votes can be accumulated on one person, and voting across multiple lists. The distribution of the seats to the individual lists and constituencies takes place according to a similar procedure as in the state elections.
There is generally only one constituency for the municipal councils and the city councils of the city districts (special case: fake suburbs ). Parties and electoral associations put up a maximum of as many candidates as there are seats. The voters, in turn, have as many votes as there are seats and can cumulate and variegate. The seats of the parties or electoral associations in the city council or in the municipal council are now based on the total number of votes that all candidates on the respective list together. With the help of the Sainte-Laguë procedure, this is converted to the number of seats, which are then assigned to the applicants on the lists in the order of the absolute number of votes achieved. Until 2009, the d'Hondt method was used to count, which disadvantages small parties and electoral associations when converting votes into mandates. In the Stuttgart region , the Hare-Niemeyer method is used to count.
Typical for Baden-Württemberg is the relatively great success of voter associations. The umbrella organization of the electoral associations is the State Association of Free Voters in Baden-Württemberg . Often these are liberal to rather conservative lists that primarily unite dignitaries and tradespeople. In some cases, however, there are also non-party-dependent lists that are more likely to belong to the social democratic, left or green spectrum. Candidates without party membership are also quite often placed on party lists.
State representations
The state has two state representations outside of Baden-Württemberg. Since 1954 the representation of the state of Baden-Württemberg at the federal government , which had its seat in Bonn until the move of the federal government and is now in Berlin. In 1987, first as an "office", then the representation of the state of Baden-Württemberg to the European Union in Brussels , which acts as a link between the state of Baden-Württemberg and the European Union .
Web links
- baden-wuerttemberg.de
- Landtag-bw.de
- Unreal choice of part of town , right to vote