Suchergebnisse

Politicians & journalists usually regard state parliament elections as test elections for the incumbent federal government. In research, it is a common assumption that federal politics have a clear influence on state elections. This is particularly relevant when the election of the state parliament is held in the middle of the election period of the federal government. Such results are based on aggregate data that do not allow any statements about the motives of individual voters. Research based on individual data arrives at a more sophisticated result. In the direct perception of citizens, federal politics play an important role for their voting decision, but are less important than state politics. Indirect measurements of the relevance of federal politics confirm the influence of the satisfaction with the federal government on voting in favor of the CDU/CSU or the SPD at state elections is rather small. The approval of the federal government can influence individual voting decisions only in exceptional situations to a degree that is similar to the effects of the factors satisfaction with the state government & the preferred prime minister candidate. Tables. Adapted from the source document.

The results of the recent state elections in Saxony-Anhalt showed more elements of continuity than change: The proportions between the three greater parties, that is CDU, Left Party and SPD, remained by and large stable. And the swift agreement made by Christian Democrats and Social Democrats to prolong the black-red governmental coalition reflects the preference of a majority of the electorate that did not opt for change. More turbulence could be seen in the field of small parties: The Liberals failed to return to the state parliament, failing to achieve the required vote percentage. The Greens had a comeback, returning to the parliament for the first time since 1994. The extreme-right-wing-party NPD could not surmount the five-percent-threshold, due to an increasing turnout, compared with that of preceding state election. Though the number of voters claiming to be guided in their voting behavior primarily by regional aspects has grown, nationwide shifts in political moods nevertheless have influenced the voting in this East German state. Adapted from the source document.