Berlin state election, 2011

Berlin state election, 2011

← 2006 18 September 2011 2016 →
All 141 seats plus 11 overhang seats of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin.
First party Second party Third party   Leader Klaus Wowereit Frank Henkel Renate Künast Party SPD CDU Green Last election 30.8% 21.3% 13.1% Seats before 53 37 23 Seats won 48 39 30 Seat change -5 +2 +7 Popular vote 413,124 340,992 256,940 Percentage 28.3% 23.4% 17.6% Swing −2.5% +2.1% +4.5%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Harald Wolf Andreas Baum Party Left Pirates NPD Last election 13.3% Did not contest 2.5% Seats before 23 Did not contest 0 Seats won 20 15 0 Seat change -3 +15 ±0 Popular vote 170,829 129,795 31,243 Percentage 11.6% 8.9% 2.1% Swing −4.6% N/A −0.4%   Seventh party   Party FDP Seats before 13 Seats won 0 Seat change -13 Popular vote 26,916 Percentage 1.8% Swing -5.8%

The last Berlin state election was held on 18 September 2011, to elect members to the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Deputies) of Berlin. All 141 seats were up for election. Berlin was governed by a coalition between the Social Democratic Party and The Left at the time. Current mayor Klaus Wowereit was the favourite heading into Sunday's election.

The SPD won the most seats, 48, despite losing five. The Left also lost three seats, making a renewal of the two parties' red-red coalition impossible. The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) gained two seats to 39, putting them in second place, while the Greens gained seven to finish third, with 30. The Free Democratic Party lost three-quarters of its votes and all its seats. Meanwhile, the Berlin chapter of the Pirate Party, in its first Berlin state election, won fifteen seats: the first time it had won election to a Landtag anywhere in Germany.

The Christian Democrats (CDU) considers safety on the Berlin U-Bahn an issue after a number of attacks on the property of the U-Bahn. The CDU was using the images from attacks with the word "Safe?". The postcards have since been recalled. The CDU has posted billboards with a photo of its top candidate that also shows figures that compare the number of police officers cut from the force by the Red-Red Coalition with the number of crimes committed on the city's buses and U-Bahn trains. Nils Diederich, a professor of political science at the Free University of Berlin, stated that this will not be much of an issue since there is a positive mood within the city.

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