Berlin state election, 2006
- Left: 23
- SPD: 53
- Green: 23
- CDU: 37
- FDP: 13
The election to the House of Berlin took place on 17 September 2006.
Starting position
The red - red Senate of the SPD and Left Party stood for re-election for the first time. The dominant themes of the legislative session ended and the campaign were the massive budget problems the city of Berlin, the situation in Berlin schools, integration problems and the weak labor market.
The SPD drew again with Klaus Wowereit at the forefront in the campaign. The Left Party joined with Senator Harald Wolf, Alliance 90/The Greens with Franziska Eichstädt - Bohlig and the FDP with their faction leader Martin Lindner.
A long time the question of the top candidate was unclear for the CDU. After the desired candidate, former Federal Environmental and Construction Minister Klaus Töpfer, his interest had denied the candidacy, the members of the Bundestag and Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Defence Fried Pflüger for candidacy agreed.
The candidacy of the National Federation of the WASG against the fusion partner Left Party was controversial and was rejected mainly by the Federal WASG. Leader of WASG was the SAV member Lucy Redler. Participation of WASG could be ensured only after an interim court order.
Result
The preliminary result is expressed by first analyzing in particular the satisfaction of Berlin with the work of the Governing Mayor Wowereit, the SPD improved by 1.1 percentage points and for the first time since 1990, the 30 - percent mark skipped ( 30.8 %).
The was the CDU obviously oppose with Fried Pflüger no convincing opponent, they remained with a score of 21.3% and a loss of 2.5 percentage points still behind their low earnings in 2001 and thus achieved its second worst result since World War II.
Overall, the Union and the SPD received only 52.1% of the votes cast, one in Berlin has not yet reached lows.
Also heavy losses suffered their Linke.PDS which plummeted by 9.2 percentage points to 13.4 % of the votes and could barely defend its position as the third strongest party. Its position as the third largest party, they had to share with the Greens, who attracted by the same number of seats forth with the Left Party. As reasons for this included the conflict with the WASG, the fact that the PDS after five years of government activity lost their opposition bonus, and that this time they had to play " workhorse " Gregor Gysi without you apply.
The Greens achieved in an increase in votes in the amount of 4 percentage points, the second-best performance in Berlin at all (13.1%) and could in terms of number of seats with the Left Party to catch up, whereas the FDP 7.6%, and a loss of 2.3 percentage points this time was back behind the Greens.
Unusually high was the parties' share, which failed due to the five-percent hurdle. For they voted aggregated 13.8 % of voters, which stand out in particular the horror with 3.8 %, the WASG with 2.9% and 2.6% with the NPD.
The election result would have allowed for the SPD both an alliance with the Left Party and the Greens. On November 6, 2006 coalition negotiations between the SPD and the Left Party have been successfully completed. November 23, 2006 Klaus Wowereit was re-elected in the second round, the third Senate Wowereit then sworn.
With the re-election of Wowereit was the first time the change of the Berlin constitution Application: the first time, only the mayor had to face the House of Representatives to vote.
After his re-election he was able to appoint the members of the Senate because of his him now granted to policy-making, without having to propose the vote of Parliament individually.
Session
On May 5, 2009, SPD deputy Canan Bayram announced their withdrawal from the SPD and the SPD. Thus, the red - red coalition possessed short only a majority of 75 seats against 74 seats of the opposition. By Bayrams exchange for Alliance 90/The Greens presented their new faction in the short term the third-strongest force before the Left Party dar.
However, since the deputies Bilkay Öney on 12 May 2009 went the opposite way and '90 by the Group of Greens joined the SPD parliamentary group, the original majority ratios were restored.
During the legislative session, there was another faction changes and exits:
In March 2010, the FDP MPs Rainer -Michael Lehmann joined the SPD fraction, while the SPD deputy Ralf Hillberg left the SPD parliamentary group, and thus became attached Member.
Likewise, Rainer Ueckert resigned from the CDU. Furthermore, René Stadtkewitz was expelled from the CDU. On September 6, 2010 was again changed the FDP deputy Albert Weingartner to the CDU.
Thus, there were three non-attached MEPs, whereas the CDU faction dwindled to 36 members and the FDP parliamentary group in the result to eleven deputies.