1983 West German federal election

6 March 1983 (1983-03-06)

All 498 seats in the Bundestag[lower-alpha 1]
250 seats needed for a majority
Registered44,088,935 Increase 2.0%
Turnout39,279,529 (89.1%) Increase 0.5pp
  First party Second party
 
KAS-Kohl, Helmut-Bild-14701-1.jpg
Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F079283-0006, Münster, SPD-Parteitag, Vogel (cropped).jpg
Candidate Helmut Kohl Hans-Jochen Vogel
Party CDU/CSU SPD
Last election 44.5%, 226 seats 42.9%, 218 seats
Seats won 244[lower-alpha 2] 193[lower-alpha 3]
Seat change Increase 18 Decrease 25
Popular vote 18,998,545 14,865,807
Percentage 48.8% 38.2%
Swing Increase 4.3pp Decrease 4.7pp

  Third party Fourth party
 
Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F060666-0035, Köln, FDP-Parteitag, Genscher (cropped).jpg
Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F065187-0022, Bonn, Pressekonferenz der Grünen, Bundestagswahl (cropped).jpg
Candidate Hans-Dietrich Genscher Petra Kelly
Party FDP Greens
Last election 10.6%, 53 seats 1.5%, 0 seats
Seats won 34[lower-alpha 4] 27[lower-alpha 5]
Seat change Decrease 19 Increase 27
Popular vote 2,706,942 2,167,431
Percentage 6.9% 5.6%
Swing Decrease 3.7pp Increase 4.1pp

The left side shows the winning party vote in the constituencies, the right side shows the seats won by parties in each of the states. The pie chart over West Berlin shows the partisan composition of its legislature.

Government before election

First Kohl cabinet
CDU/CSUFDP

Government after election

Second Kohl cabinet
CDU/CSUFDP

Federal elections were held in West Germany on 6 March 1983 to elect the members of the 10th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU alliance led by Helmut Kohl remained the largest faction in parliament, with Kohl remaining Chancellor.

Issues and campaign

The SPD/FDP coalition under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was returned to power in the 1980 West German federal election. The coalition parties grew more and more apart over economic policies. Schmidt asked for and won a motion of no confidence on 5 February 1982. The FDP cabinet ministers resigned on 17 September 1982 and the SPD formed a minority government. On 1 October, Schmidt and the SPD government were dismissed from office by a constructive vote of no confidence by the votes of the CDU/CSU Union parties and a majority of the FDP deputies in the Bundestag. The Leader of the Christian Democratic Union and Leader of the CDU/CSU Group in the Bundestag Helmut Kohl succeeded Schmidt. The new coalition had a majority in the Bundestag but early elections were arranged to legitimize it. Neither the Bundestag itself nor the Chancellor has a right to dissolve the Bundestag, so Kohl did this by deliberately losing a vote of no confidence on 17 December 1982. Federal President Karl Carstens then dissolved the Bundestag and held new elections. The Federal Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of the dissolution.

The FDP was split by its change of coalition partners. The party leadership under Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Otto Graf Lambsdorff drove the new policy, but they were rejected by a minority under Gerhart Baum, Günter Verheugen and Ingrid Matthäus-Maier. The FDP was defeated in the 1982 Hessian state election on 26 September 1982, losing half its voters by gaining only 3.1 percent of the vote and failing to enter the state parliament thanks to an SPD campaign against the FDP's "betrayal in Bonn". The FDP was defeated again and lost all of its seats in the 1982 Bavarian state election on 10 October 1982.

Helmut Schmidt renounced his chancellor candidacy and was replaced by former Federal Minister of Justice Hans-Jochen Vogel. The SPD encountered difficulties because of the emergence of the Greens. A major issue in this election was the armament question after the NATO Double-Track Decision, something the SPD was deeply split on.

Results

PartyParty-listConstituencySeats
Votes%SeatsVotes%SeatsElectedWest BerlinTotal+/–
Social Democratic Party14,865,80738.1812515,686,03340.38681939202–26
Christian Democratic Union14,857,68038.155515,943,46041.0413619111202+17
Christian Social Union4,140,86510.6394,318,80011.124453053+1
Free Democratic Party2,706,9426.95341,087,9182.80034135–19
The Greens2,167,4315.57271,609,8554.14027128+28
National Democratic Party91,0950.23057,1120.1500000
German Communist Party64,9860.17096,1430.2500000
European Workers' Party14,9660.0407,4910.0200000
Ecological Democratic Party11,0280.0303,3410.010000New
Christian Bavarian People's Party10,9940.0302,0680.0100000
Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists3,4310.010000New
Independent Social Democrats3,3330.0104500.000000New
League of West German Communists2,1290.0106860.000000New
Independents and voter groups31,9960.0800000
Total38,940,687100.0025038,845,353100.0024849822520+1
Valid votes38,940,68799.1438,845,35398.89
Invalid/blank votes338,8410.86434,1761.11
Total votes39,279,528100.0039,279,529100.00
Registered voters/turnout44,088,93589.0944,088,93589.09
Source: Bundeswahlleiter
Seat results – SPD in red, Greens in green, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black

Results by state

Constituency seats

State Total
seats
Seats won
CDU SPD CSU
Baden-Württemberg 37 36 1
Bavaria 45 1 44
Bremen 3 3
Hamburg 7 7
Hesse 22 17 5
Lower Saxony 31 21 10
North Rhine-Westphalia 71 39 32
Rhineland-Palatinate 16 11 5
Saarland 5 3 2
Schleswig-Holstein 11 9 2
Total 248 136 68 44

List seats

State Total
seats
Seats won
SPD CDU FDP Grüne CSU
Baden-Württemberg 37 22 3 7 5
Bavaria 44 25 6 4 9
Bremen 2 2
Hamburg 6 5 1
Hesse 26 15 4 4 3
Lower Saxony 32 16 8 4 4
North Rhine-Westphalia 75 31 26 10 8
Rhineland-Palatinate 15 7 5 2 1
Saarland 3 2 1
Schleswig-Holstein 10 7 1 1 1
Total 250 125 55 34 27 9

Post-election

The coalition between the CDU/CSU and the FDP returned to government, gaining 55.7% of the vote and 55.8% of the seats, with Helmut Kohl as Chancellor. This was the first election in which the Greens secured representation in the Bundestag, and the first which saw a fourth (fifth) party in the parliament since 1960.

Notes

References

    Sources

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