2008 Lower Saxony state election

The 2008 Lower Saxony state election was held on 27 January 2008 to elect the members of the 16th Landtag of Lower Saxony. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Christian Wulff was re-elected with a reduced majority.

Campaign Lower Saxony was seen as a stronghold of the Christian Democratic Union and their leader Christian Wulff was seen as likely to easily defeat the Social Democrats. The election in Lower Saxony took place on the same day as the 2008 Hessian state election; Wulff was seen as a more moderate leader than Roland Koch in Hesse and consequently more likely to perform better in the election. The CDU government had held spending down, introduced tuition fees for university students, while supporting the minimum wage. The Social Democrats (SPD) led their campaign with a call for a national minimum wage for all workers. The SPD leader in Lower Saxony, Wolfgang Jüttner, was little known to voters and unusually during the campaign made an attack on Wolff for his personal life.

Parties The table below lists parties represented in the 15th Landtag of Lower Saxony. Name Ideology Leader(s) 2003 result Votes (%) Seats CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christian democracy Christian Wulff 48.3% SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany Social democracy Wolfgang Jüttner 33.6% FDP Free Democratic Party Classical liberalism Philipp Rösler 8.1% Grüne Alliance 90/The Greens Green politics Stefan Wenzel 7.6%

Opinion polling Polling firm Fieldwork date Samplesize CDU SPD FDP Grüne Linke Others Lead 2008 state election 27 Jan 2008 – 42.5 30.3 8.2 8.0 7.1 3.9 12.2 Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 14–17 Jan 2008 1,001 46 33 7 7 5 2 13 Infratest dimap 14–16 Jan 2008 1,000 44 34 7 7 5 3 10 Infratest dimap 2–4 Jan 2008 1,000 45 33 7 8 3 4 12 Emnid 10 Dec 2007 – 2 Jan 2008 800 45 32 8 9 4 2 13 AMR Düsseldorf 29 Dec 2007 1,000 44 34 7 8 4 3 10 Forschungsgruppe Wahlen 4–6 Dec 2007 1,056 44 34 7 7 4 4 10 Infratest dimap 2–5 Nov 2007 1,000 44 33 7 9 4 3 11 Infratest dimap 5–10 Oct 2007 1,001 45 33 6 8 5 3 12 Emnid 2–6 Oct 2007 1,000 45 31 7 10 4 3 14 Infratest dimap 3–5 Sep 2007 1,000 44 34 7 9 3 3 10 Forsa 1–14 Aug 2007 1,160 47 29 7 9 4 4 18 Forsa 14–29 May 2007 1,047 46 29 8 8 4 4 17 Infratest 3–6 May 2007 1,000 41 36 8 8 4 3 5 Forsa 29 Jan–13 Feb 2007 1,193 46 29 9 9 3 4 17 Infratest dimap 19–24 Jan 2007 1,000 43 34 8 10 2 3 9 Forsa 2–14 Nov 2006 1,080 45 29 10 8 4 4 16 Forsa 25 Sep–17 Oct 2006 1,054 44 30 10 9 4 3 14 Infratest dimap 23–27 Aug 2006 1,000 40 36 8 9 4 3 4 Forsa 17 Jul–1 Aug 2006 1,086 46 31 9 8 3 3 15 Forsa 17 May–6 Jun 2006 1,039 42 36 8 8 3 3 6 Infratest dimap 17–22 Feb 2006 1,000 42 37 8 7 4 2 5 Emnid 7–12 Feb 2005 1,000 43 37 7 10 – 3 6 Emnid 28 Feb 2005 ? 44 34 7 10 – 5 10 Infratest dimap 26–31 Jan 2004 1,000 51 29 8 8 – 4 22 GMS 28 Nov–1 Dec 2003 1,000 48.5 30.5 8.5 9.0 – 3.5 17.0 Emnid 27–31 May 2003 1,000 48 31 8 10 1 2 17 2003 state election 2 Feb 2003 – 48.3 33.4 8.1 7.6 0.5 2.0 14.9

Election result

Outcome The results saw the Christian Democratic Union easily defeat the Social Democrats, despite suffering a drop in votes and seats. As a result, their leader Christian Wulff was seen as having strengthened his chances of succeeding national CDU leader Angela Merkel. The 30.3% of the vote that the Social Democrats won was the worst performance by the party in Lower Saxony since the Second World War, which was described as a 'disaster' for the party. Turnout in the election was 57%.

The Left entered the Landtag for the first time with 7.1% of the vote, comfortably exceeding the 5% electoral threshold. Along with the election in Hesse held on the same day in which The Left also won seats, this was the first time they had achieved representation in any large state in western Germany.

References

2008 Lower Saxony state election

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