2018 Hesse state election

← 2013 28 October 2018 2023 →
All 137 seats of the Landtag of Hesse, including 27 overhang and leveling seats 69 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	2,881,261 (67.3%) 5.9%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Volker Bouffier Tarek Al-Wazir Priska Hinz Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel Party CDU Greens SPD Last election 47 seats, 38.3% 14 seats, 11.1% 37 seats, 30.7% Seats won 40 29 29 Seat change 7 15 8 Popular vote 776,910 570,512 570,446 Percentage 27.0% 19.8% 19.8% Swing 11.3% 8.7% 10.9%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Rainer Rahn René Rock Janine Wissler Jan Schalauske Party AfD FDP Left Last election 0 seats, 4.1% 6 seats, 5.0% 6 seats, 5.2% Seats won 19 11 9 Seat change 19 5 3 Popular vote 378,692 215,946 181,263 Percentage 13.1% 7.5% 6.3% Swing 9.0% 2.5% 1.1%
Map of the election, showing the winner of each single-member district and the distribution of list seats.
Government before election Second Bouffier cabinet CDU–Green Government after election Third Bouffier cabinet CDU–Green

The 2018 Hessian state election was held on 28 October 2018 to elect the members of the Landtag of Hesse.^[1] The outgoing government was a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and The Greens led by Minister-President Volker Bouffier.

The election was held two weeks after the 2018 Bavarian state election, which saw the CSU and Social Democratic Party (SPD) suffer major losses, with third parties making major gains. The result in Hesse was largely similar, with the CDU and SPD losing more than 20 percentage points between them, while the Greens and Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained approximately 9 points each. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) and The Left also made gains. Compared to the 2013 election turnout fell by 5.9 points to 67.3%.^[2]

Despite suffering the worst losses of any party, the CDU remained the largest party by a comfortable margin. The Greens and SPD each won 29 seats and 19.8% of the vote; the Greens moved into second place by an extremely narrow margin of just 66 votes. The AfD, which failed to win seats in 2013, won 13.1% and 19 seats. By entering the Landtag in Hesse, it became the only third party present in all sixteen state parliaments.

The election was influenced by the poor condition of the federal government in the aftermath of the "asylum quarrel" in June/July and the crisis around Hans-Georg Maaßen in September.^[3][4] One day after the election, federal Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she would not seek re-election as CDU leader at the party convention in early December, nor seek her party's nomination as Chancellor candidate for the next federal election.^[5]

The incumbent CDU–Green government was returned with a slim majority of one seat, and was subsequently renewed.

Background

The incumbent Hesse government coalition consisted of CDU and the Greens.

The regional election for Hesse, along with the Bavarian state election held just two weeks before, was widely seen as a test for the ruling CDU/CSU and SPD coalition of Angela Merkel's fourth federal cabinet.^[6]

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of Hesse.

Opinion polling

Election result

Summary of the 28 October 2018 election results for the Landtag of Hesse

Party		Constituency			Party list				Total seats	+/-
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	+/-	Seats
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	843,068	29.34	40	776,910	26.96	11.35	0	40	7
	Alliance 90/The Greens (GRÜNE)	517,904	18.03	5	570,512	19.80	8.66	24	29	15
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	670,637	23.34	10	570,446	19.80	10.93	19	29	8
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	362,210	12.61	0	378,692	13.14	9.09	19	19	19
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	205,384	7.15	0	215,946	7.49	2.47	11	11	5
	The Left (DIE LINKE)	164,535	5.73	0	181,332	6.29	1.14	9	9	3
	Free Voters (FW)	88,122	3.07	0	85,465	2.97	1.74	0	0	0
	Human Environment Animal Protection (Tierschutz)	471	0.02	0	28,095	0.98	New	0	0	New
	Die PARTEI	12,007	0.42	0	18,334	0.64	0.15	0	0	0
	Pirate Party (PIRATEN)	3,818	0.13	0	11,617	0.40	1.52	0	0	0
	Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)	3,232	0.11	0	7,539	0.26	0.13	0	0	0
	National Democratic Party (NPD)	–			6,173	0.21	0.85	0	0	0
	Grey Panthers (AGP)	–			4,870	0.17	0.09	0	0	0
	Alliance C – Christians for Germany (Bündnis C)	–			3,789	0.13	New	0	0	New
	Party for Health Research (Gesundheitsforschung)	–			3,572	0.12	New	0	0	New
	V-Partei³	145	0.01	0	3,553	0.12	New	0	0	New
	Basic Income Alliance (BGE)	–			3,031	0.11	New	0	0	New
	Alliance of German Democrats (AD-Demokraten)	–			2,971	0.10	New	0	0	New
	Party of Humanists (Die Humanisten)	–			2,646	0.09	New	0	0	New
	The Violets (DIE VIOLETTEN)	373	0.01	0	2,403	0.08	New	0	0	New
	Human World (MENSCHLICHE WELT)	74	0.00	0	1,600	0.06	New	0	0	New
	Liberal Conservative Reformers (LKR)	139	0.00	0	1,340	0.05	New	0	0	New
	Civil Rights Movement Soliarity (BüSo)	–			425	0.01	0.03	0	0	0
	Non-partisan Residents (NEV)	643	0.02	0	–				0	New
	Democracy in Motion (DiB)	168	0.01	0	–				0	New
	Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany (APPD)	94	0.00	0	–				0	0
	Ecological Left (ÖkoLinX)	46	0.00	0	–				0	0
Total		2,873,070	100.00	55	2,881,261	100.00		82	137	27
Invalid		69,776	2.37		61,585	2.09
Turnout		2,942,846	67.30		2,942,846	67.30	5.93
Registered voters		4,372,788			4,372,788

State government formation

Despite heavy losses inflicted on the party, the CDU returned to government after negotiating a coalition agreement with the Greens, the second consecutive such arrangement between the two parties. The two parties formed the narrowest possible majority in the Landtag, occupying 69 seats. As part of the agreement, the Greens increased their representation in the Cabinet, holding four of the eleven portfolios.^[7] The returned coalition only became possible after a recount of votes took place several weeks after the election, due to computer glitches which affected some election night results. Following the recount, the state election commissioner announced that compared to the provisional figures, there were no significant shifts in the percentages, and the distribution of seats in the state parliament had not changed.^[8]