Schleswig-Holstein state election, 2005

Schleswig-Holstein state election, 2005

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All 69 seats of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein
First party Second party Third party   Leader Peter Harry Carstensen Heide Simonis Wolfgang Kubicki Party CDU SPD FDP Last election 33 41 7 Seats won 30 29 4 Seat change 3 12 3 Popular vote 576,095 554,879 94,935 Percentage 40.2% 38.7% 6.6% Swing 5.0% 4.4% 1.0%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Anne Lütkes Anke Spoorendonk Party Green SSW Last election 5 3 Seats won 4 2 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 89,387 51,920 Percentage 6.2% 3.6% Swing 0% 0.5%
Minister-President before election Heide Simonis SPD Elected Minister-President Peter Harry Carstensen CDU

Heide Simonis
SPD

Peter Harry Carstensen
CDU

The Schleswig-Holstein state election, 2005, was conducted on February 20, 2005, to elect members to the Landtag (state legislature) of Schleswig-Holstein.

Surveys before the election indicated that most voters considered high unemployment in Germany and Schleswig-Holstein to be the key issue of the campaign. Pre-election polls indicated that the personal popularity of Heide Simonis was still high, though, and that the SPD-Green coalition would continue to have the support of a plurality of voters. However, the unpopularity of the national SPD and the Hartz IV reforms appear to have taken a toll.

The announced results are as follows. Note that there is a considerable reduction in the number of Landtag seats.

After the election, the SPD-Green coalition no longer commanded a majority of the Landtag. The SSW announced that although it would not enter a coalition, it saw more common ground with the SPD than the CDU. Premier Heide Simonis proceeded to form an SPD-Green coalition based on an agreement with the SSW backing it.

On March 17, 2005, Simonis failed to win a Landtag vote for the premiership, with the secret ballot tying 34-34. It is not known who the abstainer was, though it is widely believed to have been a representative of her own party. Since the SPD-Green coalition had fallen with her leadership, the SPD was forced to negotiate a grand coalition with the CDU, acceding to the CDU's demand that CDU leader Peter Harry Carstensen replace Simonis as Minister-president.

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