West German federal election, 1976

• CDU / CSU: 254
• SPD: 224
• FDP: 40

The federal election in 1976 was held on 3 October 1976. The election of the 8th German Bundestag was the first for the resignation of Chancellor Willy Brandt ( SPD) in 1974 and was the first test of his successor Helmut Schmidt ( SPD also ).

Background

For the opposition parties joined the CDU leader and Prime Minister of the Federal State of Rhineland -Palatinate, Helmut Kohl, at.

Despite a gain votes for the opposition parties, the Social-Liberal coalition could claim, however, the SPD lost its position as the largest parliamentary group.

The SPD went under the motto Model Germany in the election, the CDU up posters including " social, safe and free ."

The lowering of the age of majority from 21 to 18 years on 1 January 1975 meant that the minimum age for eligibility for election to the Bundestag of 21 years dropped to 18 because this is legally tied to the age of majority.

Official final result

¹ in brackets: number of representatives elected on the same day by the Berlin House of Representatives, non-voting members of the Bundestag in Berlin

Results in the provinces

Consequence

Helmut Schmidt was re-elected with the votes of the social-liberal coalition in the Bundestag as chancellor. Helmut Kohl changed as opposition leader of the CDU / CSU to Bonn, from his position as Minister -President of Rhineland -Palatinate, he was from, and in addition to the party presidency, he took over the chair of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group.

The former opposition leader Karl Carstens became the new President of the Bundestag.

As a consequence, especially the CDU / CSU continued in the following years for the introduction of commercial television in order to create a media counterweight to the supposedly left-leaning public- service broadcasters ( Spiral of Silence ).