Landtag of Bavaria

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Landtag of Bavaria
Bayerischer Landtag
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
Leadership
Barbara Stamm, CSU
Since 20 October 2008
Structure
Seats 180
Bavaria Landtag 2013.svg
Political groups

Government

  •      CSU (101)

Opposition (79)

Elections
Last election
15 September 2013
Next election
2018
Meeting place
LandtagsgebäudeBayern.jpg
Maximilianeum, Munich
Website
www.bayern.landtag.de/
Presentation medal of the Bavarian Parliament (Bayerische Ständeversammlung) 1819 to their King Maximilian I Joseph, on the first anniversary of the constitution of 1818, obverse.
Bavaria Thaler 1834, Diet of the Kingdom (Landtag), uniface Pb-Strike.
Landtag of Bavaria

The Landtag of Bavaria (State Diet of Bavaria) is the unicameral legislature of the state of Bavaria in Germany. The parliament meets in the Maximilianeum.

Elections to the Landtag are held every five years[1] and have to be conducted on a Sunday or public holiday.[2] The following elections have to be held no earlier than 59 months and no later than 62 months after the previous one,[3] unless the Landtag is dissolved.

The most recent elections to the Bavarian Landtag were held on 15 September 2013.

History[edit]

The Landtag of Bavaria was founded in 1818, in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Originally it was called the Ständeversammlung and was divided into an upper house, the Kammer der Reichsräte (chamber of imperial counsellors), and a lower house, the Kammer der Abgeordneten. In 1834 the Ständeversammlung was renamed the Landtag (state diet).

In the Weimar Republic, from 1919 on, under the Bamberg Constitution, the upper house of the Landtag was abolished and its lower house became a unicameral democratic elected assembly. In 1933, in Nazi Germany, the Landtag suffered Gleichschaltung like all German state parliaments. It was dissolved on 30 January 1934.

After the Second World War, the new Constitution of Bavaria was enacted and the first new Landtag elections took place on 1 December 1946. Between 1946 and 1999 there was again an upper house, the Senate of Bavaria.

Results of the 2013 Elections[edit]

Summary of the 15 September 2013 election results[4] for the Landtag of Bavaria
Party Ideology Vote (change) Vote % (change) Seats (change) Seats %
Christian Social Union (CSU) Christian democracy, centre-right 5,632,272 +1,028,312 47.7% +4.3 101 +9 56.1%
Social Democratic Party (SPD) Social democracy, centre-left 2,436,515 +464,078 20.6% +2.0 42 +3 23.3%
Free Voters (FW) Various, lean right 1,062,244 -23,652 9.0% -1.2 19 -2 10.6%
Alliance '90/The Greens (GRÜNE) Environmental 1,018,652 +19,541 8.6% -0.8 18 -1 10.0%
Free Democratic Party (FDP) Liberalism 389,584 -457,643 3.3% -4.7 - -16 -
The Left (DIE LINKE) Democratic socialism, Left-wing 251,086 -210,669 2.1% -2.2 - - -
Bavaria Party (BP) Secessionism, center-right 247,282 +130,818 2.1% +1.0 - - -
Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP) Environmental, centre-right 239,235 +27,035 2.0% +0.0 - - -
Pirate Party (Piraten) Pirate politics 234,221 n/a 2.0% n/a - - -
The Republicans (REP) National conservatism, eurosceptic, right-wing 117,633 -28,440 1.0% −0.4 - - -
The Franconians (DIE FRANKEN) Regionalist 87,237 n/a 0.7% n/a - - -
National Democratic Party (NPD) Far-right 74,895 -48,504 0.6% -0.6 - - -
All Others 22,019 n/a 0.2% n/a - - -
Total 100.0%   180 -7 100.0%
Coat of arms of Bavaria.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Bavaria

The CSU regained the absolute majority of the seats, which they lost 5 years ago after about 50 years of one-party-government. The FDP didn't top the 5%-threshold for gaining seats. SPD, GRÜNE and FW will stay in opposition. A record number of 14.1% of the votes won't be represented in the Landtag because of the 5%-threshold.

Composition of the Landtag[edit]

The Bavarian Landtag is elected through personalized proportional representation with 90 Constituencies, but unlike the Bundestag, the seven Administrative Districts are serving as "Electoral Regions" with a fixed number of seats allocated, flexible regional lists are used and both votes count equally regarding the proportional results so that even the "lost" Constituency votes count. Also, Constituency candidates are usually also List candidates of their Party and thus able to gain enough votes to have a chance of entering the Landtag through their list even though they could not win their Constituency.

The state government is formed by the CSU. Günther Beckstein has been Minister-President of Bavaria since September 2007, when he succeeded Edmund Stoiber, who had been Minister President since 1998. In October 2008 Horst Seehofer became the current Ministers-President. Their mutual party, the CSU, has dominated the Bavarian Landtag for nearly the entire post-war period.

The CSU's 2003 election victory was the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany that any party had won a two-thirds majority of seats in an assembly at any level.[5]

Five years later in 2008, the CSU saw a stunning reversal of fortunes, and failed to win a majority of seats in Bavaria for the first time in 46 years. In the aftermath of this result, the SPD floated the idea that the four other parties should all unite to form a government excluding the CSU, as it had "lost its mandate to lead." The FDP were not interested.

Election results 1946–2013[edit]

Year CSU SPD B'90/Grüne KPD FDP BP BHE DG GB BHE NPD WAV REP FW ÖDP
1946 58,3 28,8 5,3 2,5 5,1
1946 52,3 28,6 6,1 5,7 7,4
1950 27,4 28,0 7,1 17,9 12,3
1954 38,0 28,1 7,2 13,2 10,2
1958 45,6 30,8 5,6 8,1 8,6
1962 47,5 35,3 5,9 4,8 5,1
1966 48,1 35,8 5,1 3,2 7,4
1970 56,4 33,3 5,6 1,3
1974 62,1 30,2 5,2 0,8
1978 59,1 31,4 6,2 0,4
1982 58,3 31,9 4,6 3,5 0,5 0,4
1986 55,8 27,5 7,5 3,8 0,6 3,0 0,7
1990 54,9 26,0 6,4 5,2 0,8 4,9 1,7
1994 52,8 30,0 6,1 2,8 1,0 3,9 2,1
1998 52,9 28,7 5,7 1,7 0,7 3,6 3,7 1,8
2003 60,7 19,6 7,7 2,6 0,8 2,2 4,0 2,0
2008 43,4 18,6 9,4 8,0 1,1 1,2 1,4 10,2 2,0
2013 47,7 20,6 8,6 3,3 2,1 0,6 1,0 9,0 2,0

Source:"Wahlergebnisse seit 1946" (PDF). Bavarian Landtag. Retrieved 2008-06-06. [dead link]

Parties:

  • BP: Bavaria Party – Bayernpartei
  • CSU: Christian Social Union of Bavaria – Christlich Soziale Union Bayerns
  • FDP: Free Democratic Party – Freie Demokratische Partei
  • FW: Independents – Freie Wähler
  • GB/BHE: All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights - Gesamtdeutscher Block/Block der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten
  • B'90/Grüne: Alliance '90/The Greens – Bündnis 90/Die Grünen
  • KPD: Communist Party of Germany – Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
  • NPD: National Democratic Party of Germany – Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands
  • ÖDP: Ecological Democratic Party – Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei
  • REP: The Republicans – Die Republikaner
  • SPD: Social Democratic Party of Germany – Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland
  • WAV: Wirtschaftliche Aufbau Vereinigung

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Landtag A-Z – Legislaturperiode (in German) Landtag website, accessed: 6 June 2008
  2. ^ Tag der Abstimmung – Election date (in German) Landeswahlgesetz, accessed: 6 June 2008
  3. ^ Bavarian constitution – Article 16 Legislative terms, new elections Landtag website, accessed: 7 June 2008
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ Stoiber – Dominant But Not Omnipotent Archived 3 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine. American Institute for contemporary German studies, author: Prof. Clayton Clemens, accessed: 7 June 2008

External links[edit]

Coordinates: 48°08′11″N 11°35′40″E / 48.13639°N 11.59444°E / 48.13639; 11.59444