North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 1995
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The North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 1995 was held on May 14, 1995 to elect 221 members of the Landtag (state legislature) of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The incumbent state government at that time was a SPD majority government led by Johannes Rau that tried to defend its majority after 15 years in power. The main opposition was the CDU led by Helmut Linssen since 1990.
The election took place several months after Helmut Kohl was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany for the fifth time after his CDU/CSU/FDP coalition government defended its majority in the 1994 federal election. Thus, this state election had the potential to result in possible alternative coalitions which could be a useful model for the forming of the next federal government.
As a result of this state election, the SPD government lost its majority in the Landtag so that it had to form a coalition with the Greens who doubled their share of votes and seats compared to 1990. Despite maintaining its share of votes the CDU was far away of forming a government as its most probable coalition partner, the FDP failed to surpass the 5%-threshold needed to gain seats in the Landtag.
Election campaign
Beside the influence of national politics, where people's support for the Kohl government slowly began to drop as a result of growing economic problems, environmental issues were the main topic of the election campaign. It was especially the Green party that highlighted the issue of Garzweiler II, a lignite-mining project that was strongly criticised by local inhabitants because they would have to be resettled then. The main opposition focused on topics such as education, domestic security (e.g. crime) and the support of local industries. As these topics have rather been debated in a rather consensual manner most controversy was between the SPD and the Greens during the election campaign.
Election results
- citizens eligible to vote: 13041964
- voters: 8353056
- turnout: 64,05%
- number of valid votes: 8294235
| Party | votes | percentage | number of candidates | mandates won in ridings | seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | 3816639 | 46,02 | 151 | 108 | 108 |
| CDU | 3124758 | 37,67 | 151 | 43 | 89 |
| GRÜNE | 830861 | 10,02 | 151 | 24 | |
| FDP | 332634 | 4,01 | 151 | ||
| REP | 65509 | 0,79 | 105 | ||
| Graue | 58155 | 0,70 | 116 | ||
| ÖDP | 21159 | 0,26 | 88 | ||
| Naturgesetz | 12948 | 0,16 | 68 | ||
| Tierschutz | 9936 | 0,12 | 28 | ||
| DKP | 6008 | 0,07 | 47 | ||
| PBC | 5777 | 0,07 | 20 | ||
| Statt | 3034 | 0,04 | 10 | ||
| RP | 2757 | 0,03 | 5 | ||
| BüSo | 850 | 0,01 | 10 | ||
| CM | 556 | 0,01 | 3 | ||
| APD | 516 | 0,01 | 2 | ||
| Familie | 273 | 0,00 | 1 | ||
| UAP | 152 | 0,00 | 3 | ||
| Bewußtsein | 103 | 0,00 | 2 | ||
| HP | 40 | 0,00 | 1 | ||
| Einzelbewerber | 1570 | 0,02 | 9 | ||
| Total | 8294235 | 1122 | 151 | 221 |
Political consequences
The results of this election terminated a 15-year period of a SPD majority government. Thus, the SPD had to form a coalition government with the Greens with Johannes Rau serving a fifth term as Minister-President. After this election, Johannes Rau's succession was also planned so that Wolfgang Clement, his Chief of staff from 1989 to 1995, became minister for economic affairs in Rau's cabinet. Eventually, Clement took over the office of Minister-President from Rau in May 1998 whereas Franz Müntefering succeeded Rau as the leader of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Despite on agreeing to form a government, cooperation between both parties was in a very tough atmosphere, especially due to a missing agreement on Garzweiler II. The conflict so far that the Greens even filed a lawsuit against the project at the constitutional court of NRW in 1997 which nevertheless remained unsuccessful.
On the federal level, a SPD-Green coalition became an established option of coalition for the opposition, especially because SPD and the Greens prove effective cooperation in the Bundesrat when they vetoed several pieces of legislation proposed by the federal government of Helmut Kohl. This blockade by the opposition and a deteriorating economy eventually led to a dramatic decline of public support for the Kohl government and to the victory of Gerhard Schröder in the 1998 federal election who then formed a coalition government of SPD and Greens. This way, due to a new majority of SPD and Greens in the Bundesversammlung, Johannes Rau could finally be elected President of Germany in 1999 after one unsuccessful attempt in 1994.
See also: Elections in the Free State of Prussia |