State elections: What voters decide in the federal states

In the state election it is decided who moves into the state parliament.

The state elections at a glance.

• In the

  state election

  , the members of the state parliament are elected.

• There are currently

  1,868 mandates.

• The

  state elections

  take place every

  five years

  , except in Bremen

  .

Each

state

is different

constituencies

divided that at specified intervals in the

state election

, the

country's parliamentary

vote.

There are a total of

1,868 mandates

to be awarded, with the

CDU

currently holding most of the seats.

There are a total of

16 state parliaments

in Germany

, the voting mode of which differs from state to state.

State election - what is elected

In the

state election it is

decided who

moves

into the

state parliament

.

A total of

1,868

mandates are to be awarded, which are divided proportionally to the respective population of the Bundestag.

The tasks of the state parliaments are regulated in Article 28 and Article 54 Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law.

According to this, the state parliaments are considered to be the “

representative bodies of the states

”.

In this way, the state elections are also intended to give less densely populated constituencies more electoral power.

In the city-states of

Berlin

,

Bremen

and

Hamburg

, the state parliament is also known as the "

House of Representatives

" or "

Citizenship

".

The

state election

decides on the following representatives of the people

:

• Bavarian State Parliament

• State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg

• Brandenburg State Parliament

• Bremen citizenship

• Berlin House of Representatives

• Hamburg citizenship

• State Parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

• Lower Saxony State Parliament

• Hessian state parliament

• State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia

• State Parliament of the Saarland

• State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate

• State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt

• Saxon State Parliament

State election - final result

The

state election

takes place every

five years

.

In

Bremen

, on the other hand

,

new elections are held

after

four years

.

Currently, 24 percent and thus 488 mandates go to the

CDU

and 465 to the

SPD

.

Far behind,

the Greens have

264 mandates, followed by the

AfD

with 245 mandates.

The remaining mandates are mainly divided between

the Left

,

FDP

,

FW

and

BVB

.

Compared to the previous state elections, the two major parties, the CDU and the SPD, have lost numerous mandates.

The Greens and the AfD had the most gain.

State elections - Information on the state elections 2020

The

corona pandemic

not only brought public life to a virtual standstill, there were also many changes in the state elections.

The election officials, for example,

sat

behind Plexiglas

panes

, while

only a few people were allowed

into the

polling rooms

at a time.

In advance, those responsible appealed

to vote

more by

post in

2020

.

At the beginning of the year there was a joint

legislative proposal by

the CDU, SPD and the Greens to exceptionally

hold the

2020 elections

entirely by postal vote

.

However, the CDU party executive in Baden-Württemberg voted against the application and the AfD also refused to approve.

State election - upcoming dates

Although the

state elections

in almost all federal states take place every five years, the

legislative periods

sometimes

differ

considerably.

In Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, for example, the 6th state parliament is currently in power, while the

Bavarian elections are running

for the 18th time.

Many federal states do not set the exact

date

until the election year.

The next

dates

for the

state election

will take place as follows:

• Baden-Württemberg on March 14, 2021

• Berlin in autumn 2021

• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in autumn 2021

• Rhineland-Palatinate on March 14, 2021

• Thuringia on April 25, 2021

• Saxony-Anhalt on June 21, 2021

• North Rhine-Westphalia in summer 2022

• Saarland at the beginning of 2022

• Schleswig-Holstein in summer 2022

• Bavaria in autumn 2023

• Bremen in summer 2023

• Hesse in autumn 2023

• Brandenburg in autumn 2024

• Saxony in autumn 2024

• Hamburg in spring 2025

State election - electoral mode

In Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, the official

voting age is 18 years

.

In Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen and Brandenburg, however, you can

vote

from the age of

16

.

The

electoral system also

differs from state to state.

The following federal states rely on

personalized proportional representation

, in which citizens

can vote directly

for the respective

candidate

:

• Baden-Wuerttemberg

• Bavaria

• Berlin

• Brandenburg

• Hesse

• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

• Lower Saxony

• North Rhine-Westphalia

• Rhineland-Palatinate

• Saarland

• Saxony

• Saxony-Anhalt

• Schleswig-Holstein

• Thuringia

In Bremen and Hamburg, however, there is

proportional representation with open lists

.

Thus, while voting for the party, but not for certain

candidates

.

In Bavaria, the

state elections

and the

district

elections take place at the same time.

Each district citizen receives two votes for direct candidates and lists.

State election: distribution of mandates

The mandates are based primarily on the area, economic strength and population density of the respective federal state.

With

181 mandates, most seats are

awarded

in North Rhine-Westphalia

.

The

Saarland,

on the other hand,

only

awards

51 mandates

.

• Baden-Württemberg: 120 mandates

• Berlin: 130 mandates

• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: 71 mandates

• Rhineland-Palatinate: 101 mandates

• Thuringia: 88 mandates

• Saxony-Anhalt: 91 mandates

• North Rhine-Westphalia: 181 mandates

• Saarland: 51 mandates

• Schleswig-Holstein: 69 mandates

• Bavaria: 180 mandates

• Bremen: 83 mandates

• Hessen: 110 mandates

• Brandenburg: 88 mandates

• Saxony: 120 mandates

• Hamburg: 121 mandates

State election - the biggest scandal

In the state elections in Schleswig-Holstein in

1987

, the so-called "

Barschel Affair

"

occurred

.

Named after the then

Prime Minister Uwe Barschel

(† 1987, 43), it refers to numerous questionable events related to the elections.

The Barschel affair is now

one of the greatest political scandals in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany

.

At that time, attempts were made to negatively influence public opinion about counterparties by unfair means.

Among other things, anonymous reports of tax evasion were arranged and our own detectives were hired to monitor competitors.

It was also falsely claimed that one of Uwe Barschel's competitors had AIDS.

The

2019 state election in Thuringia also

ended up with the public prosecutor's office.

Over 20 criminal charges were filed against the then

FDP parliamentary group leader Thomas Kemmerich

.

Political opponents accuse him and his party friends of, among other things, coercion of constitutional organs, fraudulent elections, and denigrating the state.

According to the Bundestag website, Thomas Kemmerich finally decided to withdraw from politics because of the allegations and has since given up his membership.

State election proportion of women

The

proportion of women

in mandate seats has remained constant at around

30 percent

in recent years

.

In 2019,

30.17 percent of

the state parliament

members

across

Germany were women.

In 2013

, the proportion of women in the state parliament was

the highest

so far

.

At that time,

32.06 percent of

all mandates went to women.

Hamburg

currently has the highest proportion of women

at 38 percent

.

The proportion of women is lowest in

Saxony-Anhalt

, where only

21.8 percent of

the state parliament members are women.

The first female Prime Minister was

Heide Simonis

from the SPD in Schleswig-Holstein in

1993

.

Ralf Stegner

, SPD politician, awarded her the

Willy Brandt Medal

on the 25th anniversary

and dedicated a

Twitter entry

to Simonis

.

Today a nice birthday reception for our Heide Simonis, who became the first German Prime Minister 25 years ago.

Today I was able to award her the Willy Brandt Medal on behalf of the SPD.

We are proud that Heide is one of us.

pic.twitter.com/mf0lEUTs4d

- Ralf Stegner (@Ralf_Stegner) July 15, 2018