The Schleswig-Holstein state election, 2005, was conducted on February 20, 2005, to elect members to the Landtag

Landtag

A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...

 (state legislature) of Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

.

Issues and Campaign

Surveys before the election indicated that most voters considered high unemployment in Germany and Schleswig-Holstein to be the key issue of the campaign. Pre-election polls indicated that the personal popularity of Heide Simonis

Heide Simonis

Heide Simonis is a German politician. She is a member of the SPD.She was Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein from 1993 to 2005, the first woman to hold this position in any German state in Germany's history.-Life:...

 was still high, though, and that the SPD-Green coalition would continue to have the support of a plurality of voters. However, the unpopularity of the national SPD

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 and the Hartz IV reforms appear to have taken a toll.

Results

The announced results are as follows. Note that there is a considerable reduction in the number of Landtag seats.

Political Party		Party List votes	Vote percentage (change)		Total Seats (change)		Seat percentage
	Social Democratic Party Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...  (SPD)	554,844	38.7%	-4.4%	29	-12	42.0%
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	576,100	40.2%	+5.0%	30	-3	43.5%
	Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party (Germany) The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...  (FDP)	94,920	6.6%	-1.0%	4	-3	5.8%
	Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...	89,330	6.2%	+0.0%	4	-1	5.8%
	South Schleswig Voter Federation South Schleswig Voter Federation The South Schleswig Voter Federation is a regional political party in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany...  (SSW)	51,901	3.6%	-0.5%	2	-1	2.9%
	National Democratic Party National Democratic Party of Germany The National Democratic Party of Germany – The People's Union , is a far right German nationalist party. It was founded in 1964 a successor to the German Reich Party . Party statements self-identify as Germany's "only significant patriotic force"...  (NPD)	27,656	1.9%	+0.9%	0	+0	0.0%
	Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS)	11,376	0.8%	-0.6%	0	+0	0.0%
	Family Family Party of Germany The Family Party of Germany is a minor conservative German political party . It was created in 1981 and is led since 1989 by pediatrician Dr. Franz-Josef Breyer. It has elected members to several local councils in the Saarland. In the 2005 federal elections, the Family Party received 0.4% of the...	11,774	0.8%	+0.8%	0	+0	0.0%
	Grays	7,523	0.5%	+0.3%	0	+0	0.0%
	All Others	9,203	0.6%	-0.5%	0	+0	0.0%
Totals		1,434,627	100.0%		69	-20	100.0%

Post-election

After the election, the SPD-Green coalition no longer commanded a majority of the Landtag. The SSW announced that although it would not enter a coalition, it saw more common ground with the SPD than the CDU. Premier Heide Simonis proceeded to form an SPD-Green coalition based on an agreement with the SSW backing it.

On March 17, 2005, Simonis failed to win a Landtag vote for the premiership, with the secret ballot tying 34-34. It is not known who the abstainer was, though it is widely believed to have been a representative of her own party. Since the SPD-Green coalition had fallen with her leadership, the SPD was forced to negotiate a grand coalition

Grand coalition

A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government...

 with the CDU, acceding to the CDU's demand that CDU leader Peter Harry Carstensen

Peter Harry Carstensen

Peter Harry Carstensen is a German politician, in the Christian Democratic Union party.Since 2005 he has been Minister President of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, serving as President of the Bundesrat in 2005/06....

replace Simonis as Minister-president.

Sources

• The Federal Returning Officer