Schleswig-Holstein state election, 2005
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The Schleswig-Holstein state election, 2005, was conducted on February 20, 2005, to elect members to the Landtag (state legislature) of Schleswig-Holstein.
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[edit] 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 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 and the Hartz IV reforms appear to have taken a toll.
[edit] Results
The announced results are as follows. Note that there is a considerable reduction in the number of Landtag seats.
| Party | Party List votes | Vote percentage (change) | Total Seats (change) | Seat percentage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democratic Party (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 (FDP) | 94,920 | 6.6% | -1.0% | 4 | -3 | 5.8% |
| Alliance '90/The Greens | 89,330 | 6.2% | +0.0% | 4 | -1 | 5.8% |
| South Schleswig Voter Federation (SSW) | 51,901 | 3.6% | -0.5% | 2 | -1 | 2.9% |
| National Democratic Party (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 | 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% | |
[edit] 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 with the CDU, acceding to the CDU's demand that CDU leader Peter Harry Carstensen replace Simonis as Minister-president.
