Politics of Lower Saxony

The Lower Saxony State Parliament ("Landtag") in Hannover

The Politics of Lower Saxony takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Federal Government of Germany exercises sovereign rights with certain powers reserved to the states of Germany including Lower Saxony. Since 1948 politics in the state has been dominated by the rightist Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the leftist Social Democratic Party. Lower Saxony was one of the origins of the German environmentalist movement in reaction to the state government's support for underground nuclear waste disposal. This led to the formation of the German Green Party in 1980.

Prime Minister

The Prime Minister of Lower Saxony (German: Ministerpräsident) is the head of government of Lower Saxony. The current Prime Minister is David McAllister.

In the most recent state election, the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) held on to its position as the leading party in the state, despite losing votes and seats. The CDU's coalition with the Free Democratic Party retained its majority although it was cut from 29 to 10.

The election saw the entry into the state parliament for the first time of the leftist The Left party.

**Summary of the 27 January 2008 election results for the Landtag of Lower Saxony**
Party		Ideology	Vote % (change)		Seats (change)		Seat %
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	christian democracy	42.5%	−5.8%	68	−23	44.7%
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	social democracy	30.3%	−3.1%	48	−15	31.6%
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	free market	8.2%	+0.1%	13	−2	8.6%
	Green Party (Bündnis 90/Grünen)	environmental	8.0%	+0.4%	12	−2	7.9%
	The Left (Die Linke)	democratic socialism	7.1%	+6.6%	11	+11	7.2%
	National Democratic Party (NPD)	extreme nationalist	1.5%	+1.5%	0	+0	0%
	Free Voters (FW)	various	0.5%	+0.5%	0	+0	0%
	All Others (gaining less than 0.5%)		2.0%	+0.0%	0	+0	0%
	Total		100.0%		152	-31	100.0%
Source: Parties and Elections in Europe

Cabinets of Lower Saxony

Kopf I (1946–1947) Kopf II (1947–1948) Kopf III (1948–1951) Kopf IV (1951–1955) Hellwege I (1955–1957) Hellwege II (1957–1959) Kopf V (1959–1961) Diederichs I (1961–1963) Diederichs II (1963–1965) Diederichs III (1965–1967) Diederichs IV (1967–1970) Kubel I (1970–1974) Kubel II (1974–1976) Albrecht I (1976–1977) Albrecht II (1977–1978) Albrecht III (1978–1982) Albrecht IV (1982–1986) Albrecht V (1986–1990) Schröder I (1990–1994) Schröder II (1994–1998) Schröder III (1998) Glogowski (1998–1999) Gabriel (1999–2003) Wulff I (2003–2008) Wulff II (2008–2010) McAllister (2010–2013) Weil (since 2013)

Politics of Germany

States	Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Brandenburg Hesse Lower Saxony Mecklenburg-Vorpommern North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia

City-states	Berlin Bremen Hamburg

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