Rhineland-Palatinate state election, 1955
- SPD: 37
- CDU: 51
- FDP: 12
The state election in Rhineland- Palatinate in 1955 took place on May 15. Here, a parliament was elected following the lifting of the Occupation Statute with the Landtag of Rhineland- Palatinate for the first time.
The election, which was strongly nationwide political circumstances, was clearly won by the CDU, which won an absolute majority of seats. The SPD reached in this election it until today ( 2011 election ) worst result in Rhineland- Palatinate.
Election result
The election led to the following result:
- Eligible voters: 2,151,228
- Voters: 1.63475 million
- Valid Votes: 1,583,829
- Total seats: 100
- Turnout: 75.99 %
FWG = Free Wählergemeinschaft Rhineland -Palatinate (list of DRP with some candidates of the German Party )
Starting position
In the previous state elections 1951, the following result was obtained:
- Eligible voters: 2,021,164
- Voters: 1,512,643 ( turnout: 74.84 %)
- Valid Votes: 1.43725 million
NGK = Notgemeinschaft war injured, DNS = National Collection, DAP = German Workers' Party
As a result, a black-yellow coalition had been formed under Peter Altmeier.
The election campaign was determined by federal policy issues. 10 days before the election, the occupation statute had been repealed and the Federal Republic had regained their sovereignty. Under the policy with the West, the federal government had recently the accession to NATO and WEU conducted under Konrad Adenauer in the way. The decision for the Saar Statute was subject. Both CDU ( "With Altmeier - for Adenauer " ) and the SPD stressed the test selection character for federal policy.
On land issues, there was again the school policy that separated the political camps. With the People's Education Act, the government had confirmed enshrined in the Constitution for Rhineland-Palatinate school freedom, ie freedom of choice between denominational school and simultaneous school early 1955.
Another time, the Social Democrats were trying to choose a plebiscite against the of them rejected Rhineland- Palatinate to make. With the end of the Occupation Statute now would be possible to dissolve the state.
Consequences
With an absolute majority for the CDU ( CDU and FDP together a 2/3 majority would have reached ), both the federal and state politics impressively confirmed. Despite the absolute majority of the Union, the FDP remained III continue to be represented in the Cabinet Altmeier.
The extreme right and the extreme left FWG KPD were able not affect the outcome of the election to win.