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All 498 seats in theBundestag[a] 250 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 44,088,935 2.0% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 39,279,529 (89.1%) 0.5pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 The left side shows constituency winners of the election by their party colours. The right side shows party list winners of the election for the additional members by their party colours. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of Germany |
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Head of state |
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Federal elections were held inWest Germany on 6 March 1983 to elect the members of the 10thBundestag. TheCDU/CSU alliance led byHelmut Kohl remained the largest faction in parliament, with Kohl remaining Chancellor.[1]
TheSPD/FDP coalition under ChancellorHelmut Schmidt was returned to power in the1980 West German federal election. The coalition parties grew more and more apart over economic policies. Schmidt asked for and won amotion of no confidence on 5 February 1982. The FDP cabinet ministers resigned on 17 September 1982 and the SPD formed a minority government.On 1 October, Schmidt and the SPD government were dismissed from office by aconstructive vote of no confidence by the votes of theCDU/CSU Union parties and a majority of the FDP deputies in theBundestag. TheLeader of the Christian Democratic Union and Leader of the CDU/CSU Group in the BundestagHelmut Kohl succeeded Schmidt. The new coalition had a majority in the Bundestag but early elections were arranged to legitimize it. Neither theBundestag itself nor the Chancellor has a right to dissolve the Bundestag, so Kohl did this by deliberately losing a vote of no confidence on 17 December 1982. Federal PresidentKarl Carstens then dissolved the Bundestag and held new elections. TheFederal Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of the dissolution.
The FDP was split by its change of coalition partners. The party leadership underHans-Dietrich Genscher andOtto Graf Lambsdorff drove the new policy, but they were rejected by a minority underGerhart Baum,Günter Verheugen andIngrid Matthäus-Maier. The FDP was defeated in the1982 Hessian state election on 26 September 1982, losing half its voters by gaining only 3.1 percent of the vote and failing to enter the state parliament thanks to an SPD campaign against the FDP's "betrayal inBonn". The FDP was defeated again and lost all of its seats in the1982 Bavarian state election on 10 October 1982.
Helmut Schmidt renounced his chancellor candidacy and was replaced by former Federal Minister of JusticeHans-Jochen Vogel. The SPD encountered difficulties because of the emergence of the Greens. A major issue in this election was the armament question after theNATO Double-Track Decision, something the SPD was deeply split on.
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| Party | Party-list | Constituency | Seats | |||||||||
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Elected | West Berlin | Total | +/– | |||
| Social Democratic Party | 14,865,807 | 38.18 | 125 | 15,686,033 | 40.38 | 68 | 193 | 9 | 202 | –26 | ||
| Christian Democratic Union | 14,857,680 | 38.15 | 55 | 15,943,460 | 41.04 | 136 | 191 | 11 | 202 | +17 | ||
| Christian Social Union | 4,140,865 | 10.63 | 9 | 4,318,800 | 11.12 | 44 | 53 | 0 | 53 | +1 | ||
| Free Democratic Party | 2,706,942 | 6.95 | 34 | 1,087,918 | 2.80 | 0 | 34 | 1 | 35 | –19 | ||
| The Greens | 2,167,431 | 5.57 | 27 | 1,609,855 | 4.14 | 0 | 27 | 1 | 28 | +28 | ||
| National Democratic Party | 91,095 | 0.23 | 0 | 57,112 | 0.15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| German Communist Party | 64,986 | 0.17 | 0 | 96,143 | 0.25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| European Workers' Party | 14,966 | 0.04 | 0 | 7,491 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Ecological Democratic Party | 11,028 | 0.03 | 0 | 3,341 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New | ||
| Christian Bavarian People's Party | 10,994 | 0.03 | 0 | 2,068 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists | 3,431 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New | |||||
| Independent Social Democrats | 3,333 | 0.01 | 0 | 450 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New | ||
| League of West German Communists | 2,129 | 0.01 | 0 | 686 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New | ||
| Independents and voter groups | 31,996 | 0.08 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Total | 38,940,687 | 100.00 | 250 | 38,845,353 | 100.00 | 248 | 498 | 22 | 520 | +1 | ||
| Valid votes | 38,940,687 | 99.14 | 38,845,353 | 98.89 | ||||||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 338,841 | 0.86 | 434,176 | 1.11 | ||||||||
| Total votes | 39,279,528 | 100.00 | 39,279,529 | 100.00 | ||||||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 44,088,935 | 89.09 | 44,088,935 | 89.09 | ||||||||
| Source:Bundeswahlleiter | ||||||||||||
| State | Total seats | Seats won | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | SPD | CSU | ||
| Baden-Württemberg | 37 | 36 | 1 | |
| Bavaria | 45 | 1 | 44 | |
| Bremen | 3 | 3 | ||
| Hamburg | 7 | 7 | ||
| Hesse | 22 | 17 | 5 | |
| Lower Saxony | 31 | 21 | 10 | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 71 | 39 | 32 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 16 | 11 | 5 | |
| Saarland | 5 | 3 | 2 | |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 11 | 9 | 2 | |
| Total | 248 | 136 | 68 | 44 |
| State | Total seats | Seats won | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | CDU | FDP | Grüne | CSU | ||
| Baden-Württemberg | 37 | 22 | 3 | 7 | 5 | |
| Bavaria | 44 | 25 | 6 | 4 | 9 | |
| Bremen | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Hamburg | 6 | 5 | 1 | |||
| Hesse | 26 | 15 | 4 | 4 | 3 | |
| Lower Saxony | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 4 | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 75 | 31 | 26 | 10 | 8 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 15 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | |
| Saarland | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Schleswig-Holstein | 10 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 250 | 125 | 55 | 34 | 27 | 9 |
The coalition between the CDU/CSU and the FDP returned to government, gaining 55.7% of the vote and 55.8% of the seats, withHelmut Kohl asChancellor. This was the first election in which the Greens secured representation in theBundestag, and the first which saw a fourth (fifth) party in the parliament since 1960.
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