16 October 1994 (1994-10-16) 1998 → 319 seats 239 seats 294 252 | 1973 1993 239 seats 8 seats | |
 | ||
Turnout 79.0% (voting eligible) | ||
German federal elections took place on 16 October 1994, to elect members to the 13th Bundestag (parliament) of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Contents
Issues and campaign
The SPD let its members elect a candidate for Chancellor against Helmut Kohl. Rudolf Scharping, Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate, beat Gerhard Schröder and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul in the SPD's internal election. Tension between Scharping and other SPD leaders such as Oskar Lafontaine and Gerhard Schröder hampered his campaign.
For the first time the Green party seemed to be willing to actually join a government in the event that a SPD – Green coalition had the majority.
Results
^† — totals for the Greens reflect the merger of the Western and Eastern Green parties.Post-election
The coalition between the CDU/CSU and the FDP was able to continue in power with Helmut Kohl as chancellor.
The PDS won four constituency seats in its power base of the former East Berlin, qualifying it for proportional representation seats even though the party failed to cross the 5% electoral threshold. Under a longstanding electoral law intended to benefit regional parties, any party that won at least three constituency seats was entitled to its share of proportionally-elected seats regardless of vote share.