Politics of North Rhine-Westphalia
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The Politics of North Rhine-Westphalia takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Federal Government of Germany exercises sovereign rights with certain powers reserved to the states of Germany including North Rhine-Westphalia. The state has a multi-party system where the two main parties are the rightist Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the leftist Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
[edit] Election results
Since the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, the ruling Ministers-President and the election results in the state have been:
| Year | SPD | CDU | FDP | Green | Other | Minister-President |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Rudolf Amelunxen (Centre Party) | |||||
| 1947 | 32.0 % | 37.5 % | 5.9 % | – | 24.6 % | Karl Arnold (CDU) |
| 1950 | 32.3 % | 36.9 % | 12.1 % | – | 18.7 % | Karl Arnold (CDU) |
| 1954 | 34.5 % | 41.3 % | 11.5 % | – | 12.7 % | 1954 - 1956 Karl Arnold (CDU) 1956 - 1958 Fritz Steinhoff (SPD) |
| 1958 | 39.2 % | 50.5 % | 7.1 % | – | 3.2 % | Franz Meyers (CDU) |
| 1962 | 43.3 % | 46.4 % | 6.9 % | – | 3.4 % | Franz Meyers (CDU) |
| 1966 | 49.5 % | 42.8 % | 7.4 % | – | 0.3 % | Heinz Kühn (SPD) |
| 1970 | 46.1 % | 46.3 % | 5.5 % | – | 2.1 % | Heinz Kühn (SPD) |
| 1975 | 45.1 % | 47.1 % | 6.7 % | – | 1.1 % | 1975 - 1978: Heinz Kühn (SPD) 1978 - 1980: Johannes Rau (SPD) |
| 1980 | 48.4 % | 43.2 % | 4.98 % | 3.0 % | 0.4 % | Johannes Rau (SPD) |
| 1985 | 52.1 % | 36.5 % | 6.0 % | 4.6 % | 0.8 % | Johannes Rau (SPD) |
| 1990 | 50.0 % | 36.7 % | 5.8 % | 5.0 % | 2.5 % | Johannes Rau (SPD) |
| 1995 | 46.0 % | 37.7 % | 4.0 % | 10.0 % | 2.3 % | 1995 - 1998: Johannes Rau (SPD) 1998 - 2000: Wolfgang Clement (SPD) |
| 2000 | 42.8 % | 37.0 % | 9.8 % | 7.1 % | 3.3 % | 2000 - 2002: Wolfgang Clement (SPD) 2002 - 2005: Peer Steinbrück (SPD) |
| 2005 | 37.1 % | 44.8 % | 6.2 % | 6.2 % | 5.7 % | Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU) |
| The votes for "others" include the Communist Party of Germany (1947 14.0 %) and the Centre Party (1947 9.8 %). [1] | ||||||
The results of the North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 2005 were as follows. Note that total number of seats were reduced, lowering the seat counts for all parties.
Voter turnout was at 63%, an increase of 7% over the previous election in 2000. Prior to the election, some analysts had predicted that a CDU victory might result from disenchanted SPD voters staying home, but the turnout figures appear to reject this scenario.
| Party | Party List votes | Vote percentage (change) | Total Seats (change) | Seat percentage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 3,059,074 | 37.1% | -5.7% | 74 | -28 | 39.6% |
| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 3,695,806 | 44.8% | +7.9% | 89 | +1 | 47.6% |
| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 508,354 | 6.2% | -3.7% | 12 | -12 | 6.4% |
| Alliance '90/The Greens | 509,219 | 6.2% | -0.9% | 12 | -5 | 6.4% |
| Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice (WASG) | 181,886 | 2.2% | +2.2% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| National Democratic Party (NPD) | 73,959 | 0.9% | +0.9% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) | 72,982 | 0.9% | -0.2% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| The Republicans | 67,282 | 0.8% | -0.3% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| All Others | 74,810 | 0.9% | +0.5% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| Totals | 8,243,372 | 100.0% | 187 | -44 | 100.0% | |
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[edit] References
- ^ Detlef Briesen u.a.: Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte Rheinlands und Westfalens. Köln, 1995. S.287, Landesamt für Statistik und Datenverarbeitung Nordrhein-Westfalen: Die Gemeinden Nordrhein-Westfalens 2005. Düsseldorf, 2005. (CD-Rom-Ausg.)
