Saxony-Anhalt state election, 2016

← 2011

13 March 2016 (2016-03-13)

All 87 seats of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt
44 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Reiner Haseloff	André Poggenburg	Wulf Gallert
Party	CDU	AfD	Left
Last election	42 seats, 32.5%	Did not contest	28 seats, 23.7%
Seats before	42	0	28
Seats won	30	24	17
Seat change	12	24	9
Popular vote	334,123	271,832	183,296
Percentage	29.8	24.2	16.3
Swing	2.8	24.2	7.3

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Katrin Budde	Claudia Dalbert	Frank Sitta
Party	SPD	Green	FDP
Last election	26 seats, 21.5%	9 seats, 7.1%	0 seats, 3.8%
Seats before	26	9	0
Seats won	11	5	0
Seat change	15	4	0
Popular vote	119,377	58,226	54,525
Percentage	10.6	5.2	4.9
Swing	10.9	2.0	1.0

Minister-President before election

Reiner Haseloff
CDU

Elected Minister-President

Reiner Haseloff
CDU

The Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on 13 March 2016 in Saxony-Anhalt for the 7th legislative period of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt. The incumbent Minister-President was Reiner Haseloff of the CDU, governing in a grand coalition with the SPD.

After the elections, a governing coalition consisting of the CDU, the SPD and the Greens was formed, and Haseloff was re-elected as minister president of Saxony-Anhalt on 25 April 2016. The coalition has been nicknamed the "Kenya coalition" because the participating parties' colors are black, red, and green, the colors of the flag of Kenya.

The reference for the polls is wahlrecht.de.

Minister President Rainer Haseloff with his CDU took approximately 29 percent of the votes and thereby remained the largest party in the state parliament, but faced a strong AfD right wing opposition. Haseloff stated after the elections that "the actual rise, which came for the AfD in the polls has a city name: It's Cologne." He explained that the rise of the votes for his party in the state came because "we at least did nothing wrong as a Christian Democratic Union here in Saxony-Anhalt."

According to observers, the only realistic possibility for a coalition government with a majority was one consisting of the CDU, SPD and the Greens. Together, they had a two-seat majority. Other combinations (such as the CDU and Die Linke) were considered unlikely, or politically unpalatable (CDU and AfD). For a broad based majority, the coalition would have needed to bring in Die Linke into the government, which was unpalatable as well.

...
Wikipedia