The tightest election results in history

"Strong nerves" Christian Lindner wished his party friends, as he commented on the evening of Thuringia election, the first projections. The saw the FDP at around five percent, and thus exactly on the threshold for entry into the state parliament. Lindner did not suspect at this time, how long his party would have to maintain the nerve strength.

When the provincial election leader announced the preliminary result shortly before midnight, the FDP was 5.0005 percent of the second votes. In other words, she only received five more votes than needed to overcome the five percent hurdle. Six votes less and the Liberals would have been out.

Not only the FDP knew that preliminary and official final results could differ by a few votes. This is because the votes cast by electoral districts on election night are again checked for counting and transmission errors. In addition, in justified cases, there may be recounts in individual districts.

5.0066 percent - that's enough for moving into the state parliament

Thus, the Liberals had to wait one and a half weeks: Now the provincial electoral committee met to determine the final outcome of the state election: The FDP came accordingly to 5.0066 percent of the vote and is thus, according to calculation of the provincial leader 73 votes above the pause clause.

If you want to know how many FDP voters actually made the difference, but you have to calculate differently: If voters had stayed at home, not only the number of FDP votes would have decreased, but also the total votes, at the five percent mark calculated. According to this logic, there were 77 voters who allowed the Liberals to enter the state parliament.

Bodo Schackow / DPA

5,0066 percent are sufficient for five seats in the Thuringian state parliament: The FDP parliamentary group with Franziska tree, Dirk Bergner, Thomas L. Kemmerich, Robert Martin Monday and Ute Bergner (from left)

It is the tightest entry into a state parliament in the history of the Federal Republic. This shows an evaluation of the results since 1949 by the SPIEGEL:

In several elections to state parliaments there were only a few hundred votes that gave the balance. Not surprisingly: The two most populous states, Bremen and the Saarland, appear several times in the ranking. This is due to the low population: A small share of votes automatically goes hand in hand with a low absolute number of voters.

In Bremen there is another special feature in the electoral law: For the entry into the citizenry it is enough to take the hurdle either in the city of Bremen or in Bremerhaven. For example, the far-right DVU managed several times to crack the local 5 percent mark in Bremerhaven with just a few thousand votes.

In Thuringia has now shown that it can be extremely scarce even in slightly larger federal states. A state parliament with or without FDP - certainty brought only the final result. By the way, scarce results, as in Thuringia, do not automatically lead to a complete recounting. However, this can be ordered in court if an election is challenged.