European Parliament election, 2009 (Germany)

  • Left: 8
  • SPD: 23
  • Green: 14
  • FDP: 12
  • CDU: 34
  • CSU: 8

The European elections in Germany in 2009 took place on June 7, 2009. It was conducted as part of the EU-wide European elections held in 2009, with 99 of the 736 seats were awarded in the European Parliament in Germany. In addition to the six already represented in the European parliament parties ( SPD, CDU, CSU, Alliance 90/The Greens, the FDP and the Left ) occurred in the choice to still 26 more Parties and Other Political organizations. Polling stations were open 8-18 clock.

  • 3.1 top candidates
  • 5.1 Elected representatives

Requirements

Results of the 2004 European elections

In the European elections of 2004, 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 largest party with 13 seats, the Greens were (11.9% ), followed by PDS ( predecessor Party of the Left ) and FDP with 7 seats ( 6.1%). Since the turnout in European elections is traditionally low, some significant differences can be attributed ( as in federal elections ), among others, the relevant meaning, generally ascribe the future voters of different parties of the results of European elections at the national level.

Political ahead of the 2009 elections in Germany

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

In the media, however, the European election was initially compared with other events, such as the election of the Federal President on 23 May 2009, rather little present; also the election of the parties was rather unspectacular. Attention was a campaign by the SPD, in which these would choose FDP with slogans such as 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 uncommon in elections in Germany.

Electoral system

Legal basis for the European elections in Germany is the European Elections Act, which refers in many areas on the federal election law. The choice is one of proportional representation, which means that each party gets seats in proportion to their share of the nationwide valid votes allocated. However, only parties are taken into account, the nationwide reach at least five percent of the valid votes. ( The five- percent threshold in 2011 was declared unconstitutional in retrospect, but this did not lead to a redistribution of seats. The 2014 European elections take place without blocking clause in Germany. )

Unlike in the general election the voter has only one vote, with which he can vote for a party or other political association in the European elections. Most parties competed with nationwide electoral lists, only the CDU and CSU presented country lists. The 15 regional lists of the CDU were connected, that is, the votes obtained were added for the total number of seats for the CDU and these seats then further distributed to the individual lists. The CSU only competed in Bavaria, but for overcoming the five-percent hurdle scored her share of the vote nationwide. In a similar turnout in Bavaria and the rest of Germany as the European elections in 2004, she ought therefore to achieve approximately 36% of the Bavarian votes. In fact, only 33.4 % of the Bavarian votes were necessary because the turnout in Bavaria rose almost to the national average, and the CSU reached 48.1 %.

The distribution of seats was 2009 not more after the Hare / Niemeyer 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 not change the order ( unlike, for example, in some local elections ).

Active and passive voting right were in Germany all those Union citizens who have reached the age of 18 years at the latest on election day and have German citizenship or permanent residence in Germany. German citizens living in other EU countries, and EU foreigners living in Germany had to decide whether they wanted to vote in their home country or country of residence. EU foreign nationals who intend to vote in Germany, had to this to register in advance in the electoral register.

Parties

Overall in the European elections occurred on 32 parties and other political associations, of which 30 with nationwide lists and two - the two opposition parties - with country lists. Eight other parties had filed nationwide lists, but were not allowed by the Federal Election Commission. The order of the parties on the ballots was different depending on the province: they depended on the number of votes obtained by each party in the last European elections in each state. Subsequently, the new participating parties and political associations were listed in alphabetical order.

Top candidates

The top candidates to the European Parliament retracted parties were:

  • CDU: Hans -Gert Poettering MEP ( President of the European Parliament )
  • SPD: Martin Schulz MEP ( President of the PES Group in the European Parliament)
  • Green: Rebecca Harms ( MEP, Vice- Chairman of the Greens / EFA Group ) and Reinhard Bütikofer ( to 2008 Federal Chairman of Alliance 90/The Greens )
  • FDP: Silvana Koch -Mehrin ( MEP, Vice-Chair of the ALDE Group )
  • Left: Bisky ( MP, Chairman of the Left Party and the Party of the European Left )
  • CSU: Markus Ferber ( MEP, Member of the EPP -ED Group )

Surveys

Before election day where pollsters representative polls:

Official final result

The Federal Returning Officer gave the following result is known:

This subject, as in the 2004 European elections, the CDU and CSU, SPD, Alliance 90/The Greens, the FDP and the Left in the European Parliament a.

Elected representatives

The elected representatives of Germany can be found in the list of members of the 7th European Parliament ( sortable overview ).

Votes on the election

While the loss of more than 6 percentage points was already expected for the Union, which met in comparison to Europe 2004 election again deteriorated SPD election result, the Social Democrats surprising. Given the forecasted heavy Union losses and significant gains in the SPD code polls had the former SPD chairman Franz Müntefering in advance nor the most bang sagging black CDU / CSU - bar during the first Gewinn-/Verlust-Prognosegrafiken ARD and ZDF quipped.

Verification

Against the validity of the election 54 appeals at the German Bundestag were inserted. Among them were ten appeals, which contested the unconstitutionality of the five-percent clause.

Against the rejection of appeals by the Bundestag on 8 July 2010, several elective exam complaints were brought before the Federal Constitutional Court. One of the complainants was the constitutional lawyer Hans Herbert von Arnim. In his view, the five-percent clause would have to be removed as they distort the result without a good reason. Eight MPs - two each of the CDU, SPD and the Greens, one each from CSU and FDP - which, held their parliamentary mandate wrongly. For them, eight representatives of smaller parties such as the Free Voters, the Animal Protection Party and the ODP would move up. Here, Arnim relies on the Lisbon judgment of the German Constitutional Court, which, it contends that the five-percent clause, as it applies to federal elections, can not be justified at European elections. The Verification complaint brought by Arnim supported by Declaration of 500 citizens, including 30 constitutional lawyers.

The Federal Constitutional Court was negotiating to three for the verification of complaints on 3 May 2011 orally, the date of judgment was made on November 9, 2011. Thereafter, the five-percent Sperrkausel in Germany is unconstitutional, but had no subsequent amendment of 2009 determined the distribution of seats on the sequence and will therefore only be felt in the European elections of 2014.

The following table shows the change in the distribution of seats that would be caused by the elimination of the restrictive clause.

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