Bavaria state election, 2003

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The Bavaria state election, 2003, was conducted on September 21, 2003, to elect members to the Landtag (state legislature) of Bavaria.

[edit] Issues and campaign

e • d **Summary of the 21 September 2003 **election results** for the Landtag of Bavaria**
	Ideology	Vote % (change)		Seats (change)		Seat %
Christian Social Union (CSU)	Center-right	60.7%	+7.8%	124	+1	68.9%
Social Democratic Party (SPD)	Center-left	19.6%	-9.1%	41	-26	22.8%
Alliance '90/The Greens	Environmental, left-wing	7.7%	+2.1%	15	+1	8.3%
Free Voters (FW)	Various, lean right	4.0%	+0.4%
Free Democratic Party (FDP)	Free Market	2.6%	+0.9%
Republicans (Die Republikaner)	Right Wing	2.2%	-1.4%
Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)	Environmental, center-right	2.0%	+0.2%
Bavaria Party (BP)	Center-right, secessionist	0.8%	+0.0%
Party of Bible-believing Christians (PBC)	Religious	0.2%	+0.1%
Civil Rights Movement Solidarity (BüSo)	LaRouche movement	0.1%	+0.1%
Party for Rights, Freedom, Health (AUFBRUCH)	Environmental	0.1%	+0.1%
All Others		0.1%	-1.0%
Total		100.0%		180	-24	100.0%

Turnout was at 57.1%, far below the 1998 election's turnout of 69.8%.

Seat results -- SPD in red, CSU in black, Greens in green

The CSU was once again able to form a government without coalition partners, as it had been able to do in Bavaria since 1962.
The CSU's winning of over 2/3 of the seats in the new Landtag was the strongest showing for any party in German electoral history. No party had ever been able to form a super-majority of over 2/3 of the seats in any Landtag before or since.
In the years that followed this electoral triumph, lethargy—perhaps induced partly by so many years of one-party rule—set in. The CSU became ever more unpopular, until the next election in 2008, wherein its support plummeted.