13 March 2016 (2016-03-13) Next → Did not contest 28 seats, 23.7% 30 24 Date 13 March 2016 | 42 seats, 32.5% Did not contest 42 0 24 17 Location Saxony-Anhalt, Germany | |
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Winner Reiner Haseloff | ||
The Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on 13 March 2016 in Saxony-Anhalt for the 7th legislative period of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt. The incumbent Minister-President was Reiner Haseloff of the CDU, governing in a grand coalition with the SPD.
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After the elections, a governing coalition consisting of the CDU, the SPD and the Greens was formed, and Haseloff was re-elected as minister president of Saxony-Anhalt on 25 April 2016. The coalition has been nicknamed the "Kenya coalition" because the participating parties' colors are black, red, and green, the colors of the flag of Kenya.
Polls
The reference for the polls is wahlrecht.de.
Post-election
Minister President Rainer Haseloff with his CDU took approximately 29 percent of the votes and thereby remained the largest party in the state parliament, but faced a strong AfD right wing opposition. Haseloff stated after the elections that "the actual rise, which came for the AfD in the polls has a city name: It's Cologne." He explained that the rise of the votes for his party in the state came because "we at least did nothing wrong as a Christian Democratic Union here in Saxony-Anhalt."
According to observers, the only realistic possibility for a coalition government with a majority was one consisting of the CDU, SPD and the Greens. Together, they had a two-seat majority. Other combinations (such as the CDU and Die Linke) were considered unlikely, or politically unpalatable (CDU and AfD). For a broad based majority, the coalition would have needed to bring in Die Linke into the government, which was unpalatable as well.
Other possible options – and having precedent in some of the eastern states of Germany – would have been a minority government of one or other of the parties that would be 'tolerated' by a third party or fourth party. In such a situation, a minority government of the CDU and SPD could have been 'tolerated' by the Greens and/or Die Linke, even if they themselves formed no part of government. Similarly, a CDU and Green coalition could have been tolerated by the SPD and/or Die Linke, or a SPD-Linke-Green coalition could be tolerated by the CDU, although the latter wouldn't be realistic as well.
Haseloff was able to keep power in Saxony-Anhalt, as he managed to form a CDU, SPD and the Green Party coalition (also called "Kenya coalition" after the colours of the Kenyan flag), the first of the German states. On 25 April 2016 he was re-elected in parliament as minister president of the state during a second ballot, where he managed to gain one vote more than the coalition majority.