North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 1995
- SPD: 108
- Green: 24
- CDU: 89
In the state elections in North Rhine -Westphalia on 14 May 1995, the SPD lost after 15 years of one-party government its absolute majority in the Landtag of North Rhine- Westphalia. Nevertheless, remained Johannes Rau Minister President of North Rhine -Westphalia. The CDU increased slightly with one percent. The Greens doubled their earnings and went into a red-green coalition. The FDP failed at the 5 % hurdle and missed the re-entry into the state parliament.
Electioneering
The state election in North Rhine -Westphalia in 1995 took place in Hesse in 1995 against the background of the general election in 1994 and the subsequent state election. Through both the respectively current government constellation has been confirmed as the Greens had increased considerably in both elections, the SPD in Hesse reached, however, the worst result since 1966.
Outstanding national political issue in the NRW election campaign was the decision on the mining Garzweiler II The Greens opposed this plan strictly from. Apart from this issue, the campaign was quiet. The CDU addressed the school policy, economic development and internal security, SPD social security and job creation.
The CDU had appointed a leading candidate Helmut Linssen in a ballot. 59.6 % of the members pulled him in front of his rival candidate Norbert Lammert. For the CDU NRW it was the first ballot for the candidates choice. Top candidate of the FDP was Achim Rohde, the former leader of the Liberals.
Official final result
- Eligible voters: 13,041,964
- Voters: 8,353,056
- Turnout: 64.05 %
- Valid Votes: 8,294,235
The SPD won 108 constituencies directly and received nine overhang seats. For this, the CDU and the Greens eight received three compensatory seats, so that the total number of deputies increased to 221.
Follow
The new majorities ended the one-party government of the SPD and led to the first red-green state government in North Rhine -Westphalia, which was led by the end of May, 1998 by the current acting Prime Minister John Rau, followed by Wolfgang Clement. The coalition agreement was the final decision on Garzweiler II open until 2000 and thus wrote the status quo, despite opposition from the Greens against this project. Even within the SPD, there were differences of opinion on this issue: The former deputy NRW SPD regional chairman Christoph Zöpel was opposed to the project and said " Garzweiler II is an anachronism ," the trade union wing, however, was decided. The Greens failed in 1997 with a constitutional complaint against the approval of Garzweiler II still during this legislative session.
This red-green coalition was hailed as a model for the same colored coalition in union from 1998.