(Earthquake; 01-03; p.2)

The Länder of Lower Saxony and Hesse elected their respective parliaments; in both the Social Democrats as main part of the coalition governing Germany had to face significant losses in voters' confidence.

Results

According to the preliminary official result, for Lower Saxony that means:
• the up to now ruling Social Democrats (SPD) lost the majority of seats to the Christian Democrats (CDU); the latter lacking only one seat for an absolute majority;
• the Liberals (FDP), after a period of absence are back in the state's parliament, the "Landtag".
In table form, the shifts can be visualised as follows:

	seats in 1998		seats in 2003
Christian Democrats (CDU)	62		91
Social Democrats (SPD)	83	=>	63
Liberals (FDP)	0		15
Greens (Grüne)	12		14
	in total 157		in total 183

The different number of seats in total stems from the rule that in Lower Saxony two thirds of the regular seats, i.e. 100 seats are filled by direct vote; a second vote however, by which Germans vote for a party and not for a candidate decides about the parties' share of seats. If a party therefore has more seats gained by first votes for candidates than their respective share in the second votes, these seats have to be equalised by seats for other parties, called "Ausgleichsmandate".

In Hesse the results mean:
• the already ruling CDU is still in power and now has an absolute majority in the Landtag;
• the FDP is still in parliament, but dismissed the CDU's offer to perpetuate a government coalition, from now on preferring to act as opposition.
Put in table form, one sees the shifts:

	seats in 1999		seats in 2003
Christian Democrats (CDU)	50		56
Social Democrats (SPD)	46	=>	33
Liberals (FDP)	8		12
Greens (Grüne)	6		9
	in total 110		in total 110

 (read on here)