European Parliament election, 2009 (Germany)

European Parliament election, 2009

June 7, 2009

All 99 German seats in the European Parliament Opinion polls Turnout 43.3%   First party Second party Third party   Leader Hans-Gert Pöttering Martin Schulz Rebecca Harms Party CDU/CSU SPD Green Seats before 49 23 13 Seats won 42 23 14 Seat change 7 0 1 Popular vote 9,968,153 5,472,566 3,194,509 Percentage 37.9% 20.8% 12.1% Swing 6.6% 0.7% 0.2%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Silvana Koch-Mehrin Lothar Bisky Party FDP Left Seats before 7 7 Seats won 12 8 Seat change 5 1 Popular vote 2,888,084 1,969,239 Percentage 11.0% 7.5% Swing 4.9% 1.4%

The European Parliament election of 2009 in Germany was the German part of the European Parliament election, 2009. The voting was held on Sunday, 7 June. A total of 26 parties competed for the 99 seats reserved for Germany in the European Parliament. In the previous election of 2004, the six parties which were represented in the German national parliament (Bundestag) from 2005 to 2013, had entered the European Parliament by overcoming the 5% election threshold. The same parties entered the European Parliament this time. None of the other parties managed to gain more than 1.7%, but together the small parties exceeded 10% for the first time. At 43.3%, the voter turnout was just over the all-time low in the previous European election in Germany (43.0%).^[1]

Results of the 2004 election

From the 2004 European elections, the CDU had emerged as the strongest party vote, together with the CSU had achieved 44.5% of the vote and 49 of the 99 German mandates. In contrast, the SPD lost heavily and only came to 23 seats (21.5% of the vote). Third strongest party were the Greens with 13 seats (11.9%), followed by PDS (Party of the predecessor left ) and the FDP with 7 seats (6.1%). Since the turnout in European elections is traditionally low, some significant differences can be attributed (e.g. in federal elections) including the respective importance generally attributed to the various constituencies parties European elections of the results at national level.

Political ahead of the 2009 election in Germany

The 2009 European elections fell in Germany in the pre-election campaign for the 2009 election . It was therefore often regarded as a "test vote" for this, in which the various parties first position and, for example, could test the response to specific campaign issues.

In the media, however, the European elections was initially compared with other events, such as the election of the President 23 May 2009, rather little present; and the election campaign of the parties was rather unspectacular. Attention was a campaign of SPD in which these slogans as would choose FDP financial sharks or hot air would choose the Left parties other attack directly. Although there are some historical examples (such as the Red Sock Campaign of the CDU 1994), this form of negative campaigning is otherwise rather unusual in elections in Germany.

Electoral System

Legal basis for the European elections in Germany is the European Elections Act, which in many areas of the Federal Electoral Act refers. The choice is a proportional representation, that is, each party gets seats in proportion to their share of the nationwide valid votes allocated. However, only parties were considered, at least nationwide five percent of the valid votes reached. (The five-percent hurdle in 2011 was declared unconstitutional in retrospect, but this did not lead to a redistribution of seats.^[2] The 2014 European elections took place in Germany without a restrictive clause.)

Unlike the federal election the voter has only one vote, with whom he a in the European election party can vote or other political association. Most parties entered with nationwide electoral lists to merely CDU and CSU presented regional lists. The 15 Official lists of CDU were connected, that is, the votes obtained were added for the total number of seats for the CDU and the seats then further distributed to the individual lists. The CSU only occurred in Bavaria, but to overcome the five-percent hurdle counted their share of the vote nationwide, they therefore had 33.4% of the Bavarian votes win, with 48.1% she reached the^[3] Approximately 36% of the Bavarian votes still would have been necessary because the turnout in Bavaria in 2004 a lot was below the national average for the same turnout in Bavaria and in the rest of Germany as each of the 2004 European elections.

The allocation of seats was introduced in 2009 are no longer following the Largest remainder method, but for the first time after the Sainte-Laguë method . The electoral lists were closed; that is, the amounts attributable to the nominations seats were occupied exactly in the manner specified in the list order. The voters could (unlike, for example, in some local elections do not change the order).

Active and passive right to vote in Germany were all those EU citizens who have reached the age of 18 years at the latest on election day and the German citizenship or have a residence in Germany. German citizens living in other EU countries, as well as EU foreigners living in Germany had to decide whether they wanted to vote in their home country or country of residence. EU foreigners who wanted to vote in Germany, had to leave this app previously in the electoral register.

Results

 Summary of the results of Germany's 7 June 2009 election to the European Parliament

← 2004 • 2009 • 2014 →
National party		European party	Main candidate	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU) + Christian Social Union (CSU)	EPP	None	9,968,153	37.85		42 / 99	7
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	EPP		8,071,391	30.65	5.9	34 / 99	6
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	PES		5,472,566	20.78	0.7	23 / 99	0
	Alliance '90/The Greens (B'90/GRÜNEN)	EGP		3,194,509	12.13	0.2	14 / 99	1
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	ELDR		2,888,084	10.97	4.9	12 / 99	5
	The Left (LINKE)	PEL		1,969,239	7.48	1.5	8 / 99	1
	Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU)	EPP		1,896,762	7.20	0.8	8 / 99	1
	Free Voters (FW)	None		442,579	1.68	New	0 / 99	0
	The Republicans (REP)	None		347,887	1.32	0.6	0 / 99	0
	Human Environment Animal Welfare (MUT)	None		289,694	1.10	0.2	0 / 99	0
	Others (parties and candidates that won less than 1% of the vote and no seats)			1,508,867	5.7	—	0 / 99	0
Valid votes				26,333,444	97.81
Blank and invalid votes				590,170	2.19
Totals				26,923,614	100.00	—	99 / 99	0
Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout				62,222,873	43.27	0.26
Source: German government

Polls

Party		Last election	2009-04-03 Infratest[4]	2009-04-22 GESS[4]	2009-05-07 Infratest[4]	2009-05-28 Infratest[4]	2009-05-29 FW[4]
	CDU+CSU	44.5%	36% (30+6)	39%	37% (31+6)	39% (33+6)	39%
	SPD	21.5%	28%	27%	28%	26%	25%
	The Greens	11.9%	13%	13%	12%	12%	10%
	FDP	6.1%	10%	10%	10%	9%	10%
	The Left	6.1%	8%	6%	8%	7%	8%
	Other	9.8%	5%	5%	5%	7%	8%

Of particular interest in the European elections was the performance of the conservative CSU. The party only stands for election in the state of Bavaria, instead of its nationwide "sister party", CDU, where it has traditionally been the dominating party, winning absolute majorities for decades. As the CSU's share of votes has to be above 5% on the national level in order to gain seats in the European Parliament, it must gain at least 35% of the Bavarian electorate to pass this threshold. While the CSU had still won 58% in the 2003 Bavaria state election, in the state elections in 2008, its share plummeted to only 43.4%, which was only about 6% on the national level.^[5] Despite these fears, in this European election, the CSU gained 7.2% on the national level.

References

1. "European election results 2009 for Germany". Elections2009-results.eu. Retrieved 9 June 2009.
2. "Bundesverfassungsgericht - Entscheidungen - Verfassungswidrigkeit der Fünfprozentklausel bei Europawahlen - ungerechtfertigte Verletzung der Wahlrechtsgleichheit und Chancengleichheit". Bverfg.de (in (German)). 2011-11-09. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
3. "Übersicht". Bundeswahlleiter.de. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
4. Wilko Zicht and Matthias Cantow. "Sonntagsfrage – Europawahl" (in German). Retrieved 8 May 2009.
5. "Europawahl 2009: Scheitert die CSU an der bundesweiten Fünf-Prozent-Klausel?". Prcenter.de. Retrieved 2016-07-07.