1990 German federal election

German federal election, 1990

2 December 1990 (1990-12-02)
All 662 seats in the Bundestag 332 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	77.8% (voting eligible)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Helmut Kohl Oskar Lafontaine Otto Graf Lambsdorff Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP Leader since 1973 – 1988 Last election 234 seats 193 seats 48 seats Seats won 319 239 79 Seat change 85 46 31 Popular vote 20,358,096 15,545,366 5,123,233 Percentage 43.8% 33.5% 11.0% Swing 0.4% 3.5% 1.9%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Petra Kelly Gregor Gysi Party Greens PDS Leader since – 1990 Last election 44 seats new party Seats won 8 17 Seat change 36 17 Popular vote 2,347,407 1,129,578 Percentage 5.0% 2.4% Swing 3.3% 2.4%
Party list election results by state: dark blue denotes states where CSU had the absolute majority of the votes; lighter blue denotes states where CDU had the plurality of votes; red denotes states where the SPD had the absolute majority of the votes; and pink denotes states where the SPD had the plurality of votes
Chancellor before election Helmut Kohl CDU/CSU Elected Chancellor Helmut Kohl CDU/CSU

German federal elections took place on 2 December 1990, to elect members to the 12th Bundestag (parliament) of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was the first free and universal election in all of Germany since the election of 1932 which cemented Adolf Hitler's power. The result was a comprehensive victory for the governing coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union and the Free Democratic Party, which was reelected to a third term.

Issues and campaign

This was the first election conducted after German reunification which took place on 3 October. Almost 150 seats had been added to represent the newly re-established eastern states of Germany without reducing the number of Western members. The euphoria following the reunification gave the ruling CDU/CSU–FDP coalition a dramatic advantage in both Western and Eastern Germany throughout the campaign.

Results

All change figures are relative to the pre-existing West German Bundestag.

This was the one and only election for which the 5% threshold was not applied nationwide, but separately for East and West. As a result, while the Western Greens failed to gain representation, an ideologically similar party from the East, Alliance 90, did.

↓

319	79	239	17	8
CDU/CSU	FDP	SPD	PDS

Popular Vote CDU/CSU   43.82% SPD   33.46% F.D.P.   11.03% B'90/GRÜNE   5.05% PDS   2.43% REP   2.13% Other   2.08%

Bundestag seats CDU/CSU   48.19% SPD   36.10% F.D.P.   11.93% PDS   2.57% B'90/GRÜNE   1.21%

Post-election

The governing CDU/CSU-FDP coalition was returned to office with a landslide majority, and Helmut Kohl remained chancellor. The CDU did exceptionally well in the former East Germany, which had been the heartland of the SPD before the Nazi era.

Seat results – SPD in red, combined Greens in green, PDS in purple, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black

Sources

• The Federal Returning Officer
• Psephos