West German federal election, 1976

German federal election, 1976

1972 ← 3 October 1976 (1976-10-03) → 1980

All 496 seats in the Bundestag 249 seats were needed for a majority   First party Second party   Leader Helmut Schmidt Helmut Kohl Party SPD CDU/CSU Leader since - (chancellor since 1974) 1973 Last election 230 seats (271 with FDP) 225 seats Seats won 214 (253 with FDP) 243 Seat change -16 (-18) +18 Popular vote 16,099,019 (19,094,104) 18,394,801 Percentage 42.6% (50.5%) 48.6% Swing -3.2% (-3.7%) +3.8%

Chancellor before election Helmut Schmidt SPD Elected Chancellor Helmut Schmidt SPD

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The 8th German federal election, 1976, was conducted on 3 October 1976, to elect members to the Bundestag (parliament) of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Issues and Campaign

The coalition of SPD and FDP wanted to be re-elected, with the SPD now led by Helmut Schmidt - the party's candidate for Chancellor. CDU and CSU tried to achieve an absolute majority of the votes to make CDU chairman Helmut Kohl Chancellor.

Results

	Party	Party List votes	Vote percentage (change)		Total Seats (change)		Seat percentage
	Social Democratic Party	16,099,019	42.6%	-3.2%	214	-16	43.1%
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	2,995,085	7.9%	-0.5%	39	-2	7.9%
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	14,367,302	38.0%	+2.8%	190	+13	38.3%
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	4,027,499	10.6%	+1.0%	53	+5	10.7%
	All Others	333,595	0.9%		0		0.0%
	Totals	37,822,500	100.0%		496	+0	100.0%

Seat results -- SPD in red, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black

Post-election

The coalition between the SPD and the FDP remained in government, with Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor. Between the "sister parties" of CDU and Bavarian CSU there emerged a critical conflict, as the CSU leader Franz Josef Strauß wanted to break both the united Bundestag group of the parties and the agreement not to compete against each other in any Land. Later, this attack was withdrawn, while Strauß became candidate for chancellor for the 1980 elections.

Sources

• The Federal Returning Officer
• Psephos