European Parliament election, 2009 (Germany)

Germany European Parliament election, 2009

2004 ← 7 June 2009 → 2014

99 seats to the European Parliament

The European Parliament election of 2009 in Germany was the German part of the European Parliament election, 2009. The voting was held on Sunday, 7 June. A total of 26 parties competed for the 99 seats reserved for Germany in the European Parliament. In the previous election of 2004, the six parties, which are also currently represented in the German national parliament (Bundestag), had entered the European Parliament by overcoming the 5% election threshold. The same parties entered the European Parliament this time. None of the other parties managed to gain more than 1.7%. At 43.3%, the voter turnout was just over the all-time low in the previous European election in Germany (43.0%).

Results

  Summary of the June 2009 European Parliament election results

Parties and coalitions		European party	Votes	%	Change	Seats	Change
	Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) (CDU)	European People's Party	8,069,983	30.7	-5.9	34	-6
	Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) (SPD)	Party of European Socialists	5,471,703	20.8	-0.7	23	±0
	Alliance '90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)	European Green Party	3,193,821	12.1	+0.2	14	+1
	Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei) (FDP)	European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party	2,887,331	11.0	+4.9	12	+5
	The Left (Die Linke)	Party of the European Left	1,968,325	7.6	+1.5	8	+1
	Christian Social Union of Bavaria (Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern) (CSU)	European People's Party	1,896,777	7.2	-0.8	8	-1
	Free Voters (Freie Wähler) (FW)		441,726	1.7	+1.7	0
	The Republicans (Die Republikaner) (REP)		347,897	1.3	-0.6	0
	Human Environment Animal Welfare (Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz)		289,572	1.1	-0.2	0
	Family Party of Germany (Familienpartei Deutschlands)		252,149	1.0		0
	Others		1,508,867	5.7
	Valid votes		26,328,152
	Invalid votes		596,682
Turnout			26,924,834	43.3
Electorate (registered voters)			62,202,941
Votes Cast			26,924,834	100.00		99

Polls

Party		Last election	2009-04-03 Infratest	2009-04-22 GESS	2009-05-07 Infratest	2009-05-28 Infratest	2009-05-29 FW
	CDU+CSU	44.5%	36% (30+6)	39%	37% (31+6)	39% (33+6)	39%
	SPD	21.5%	28%	27%	28%	26%	25%
	The Greens	11.9%	13%	13%	12%	12%	10%
	FDP	6.1%	10%	10%	10%	9%	10%
	The Left	6.1%	8%	6%	8%	7%	8%
	Other	9.8%	5%	5%	5%	7%	8%

Of particular interest in the European elections was the performance of the conservative CSU. The party only stands for election in the state of Bavaria, instead of its nationwide "sister party", CDU, where it has traditionally been the dominating party, winning absolute majorities for decades. As the CSU's share of votes has to be above 5% on the national level in order to gain seats in the European Parliament, it must gain at least 35% of the Bavarian electorate to pass this threshold. While the CSU had still won 58% in the 2003 Bavaria state election, in the state elections in 2008, its share plummeted to only 43.4%, which was only about 6% on the national level. Despite these fears, in this European election, the CSU gained 7.2% on the national level.