Politics of Schleswig-Holstein


The Politics of Schleswig-Holstein takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Federal Government of Germany exercises sovereign rights with certain powers reserved to the states of Germany including Schleswig-Holstein. The state has a multi-party system where the two main parties are the rightist Christian Democratic Union and the leftist Social Democratic Party of Germany. The South Schleswig Voter Federation is a small political party present only in this state that represents the Danish and Frisian minorities.
Since the creation of the Federal Republic in 1945, the state's Minister-Presidents have been:
PeriodMinister-PresidentParty
1945–1947Theodor Steltzer
1947–1949Hermann Lüdemann
1949–1950Bruno Diekmann
1950–1951Walter Bartram
1951–1954Friedrich-Wilhelm Lübke
1954–1963Kai-Uwe von Hassel
1963–1971Helmut Lemke
1971–1982Gerhard Stoltenberg
1982–1987Uwe Barschel
1987–1988Henning Schwarz
1988–1993Björn Engholm
1993–2005Heide Simonis
2005–2012Peter Harry Carstensen
2012– 2016Torsten Albig
2017–Daniel Günther

Election results summary since 1947

YearSPDCDUSSW1FDPBHE2Green3
1947443,834,19,35,0
1950527,519,85,57,123,4
1954633,232,23,57,514,0
1958735,944,42,85,46,9
196239,245,02,37,94,2
1967839,446,01,95,9
197141,051,91,43,8
197540,150,41,47,1
197941,748,31,45,72,4
198343,749,01,32,23,6
198745,242,61,55,23,9
198854,833,31,74,42,9
1992946,233,81,95,65,0
19961039,837,22,55,78,1
200043,135,24,17,66,2
200538,740,23,66,66,2
200925,431,54,314,912,4
201230,430,84,68,213,2

YearTotalSPDCDUSSW1BHE2FDPGrüne3
19477043216
195056919164158
19546692525105
1958692633253
196269293415
1967873303414
19717332401
197573303715
197973313714
19837434391
198774363314
19887446271
1992989453215
1996753330246
2000894133375
2005692930244
200995253441412
20126922223610

1 SSV in 1947

2 1954-8: GB/BHE, 1962: GDP

3 1979: GLSH, 1983-92: Grüne, 1996-: B’90/Grüne

4 1947: FDP: 4,97%, others: KPD: 4,7%, DKonP: 3,1 %

5 1950: others: DP: 9,6%, DRP: 2,8%, KPD: 2,2 %

6 1954: others: SHB 5,1%, KPD: 2,1 %

7 1958: others: DP: 2,8 %

8 1967: others: NPD: 5,8%

9 1992: Grüne: 4,97%, others: DVU: 6,3%

10 1996: others: DVU: 4,3%

2005 state election

Since 2005, the state has been governed by a grand coalition of the CDU and SPD. Prior to the Schleswig-Holstein state election of 2005, the state had been run by a coalition of the SPD and the Alliance '90/The Greens led by Heide Simonis who had a majority between them of three seats. Following the election both the SPD-Green and the CDU-Free Democratic Party coalitions were short of a majority and the South Schleswig Voter Federation refused to enter into coalition with either side.
Following the election, the SSW announced that they saw more common ground with the SPD than the CDU and so Premier Heide Simonis initially reformed the Red-Green coalition with the assumption of SSW backing. 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, but this prevented the formation of a Red-Green coalition. The SPD then negotiated a grand coalition with the CDU, acceding to the CDU's demand that CDU leader Peter Harry Carstensen replace Simonis as Minister-president.