2004 Hamburg state election

Template:Short description The 2004 Hamburg state election was held on 29 February 2004 to elect the members of the 18th Hamburg Parliament. The election was triggered by the collapse of the coalition government between the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Party for a Rule of Law Offensive (PRO), and Free Democratic Party (FDP). The election saw a collapse in support for PRO which had split after its leader Ronald Schill left in 2003. The original party and Schill's new party captured 3.5% of the vote between them, down from 19.4% in 2001. A huge amount of support flowed to the CDU, which won 63 of the 121 seats in Parliament, forming a majority government. First Mayor Ole von Beust continued in office.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 17th Hamburg Parliament.

Name			Ideology	Leader(s)	2001 result
					Votes (%)	Seats
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	SPD	Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands	Social democracy	Thomas Mirow	36.5%	Template:Composition bar
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	CDU	Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands	Christian democracy	Ole von Beust	26.2%	Template:Composition bar
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	PRO	Party for a Rule of Law Offensive Partei Rechtsstaatlicher Offensive	Right-wing populism	Mario Mettbach	19.4%	Template:Composition bar
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	GAL	Green Alternative List Grün-Alternative-Liste Hamburg	Green politics		8.6%	Template:Composition bar
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	FDP	Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei	Classical liberalism		5.1%	Template:Composition bar

Background

In August 2003, Mayor von Beust made moves to dismiss an Interior official suspected of corruption. In response, Senator of the Interior Ronald Schill threatened to spread rumours of an affair between von Beust and the Senator of Justice. Schill was subsequently dismissed from the government. In December of the same year, Schill left his own party along with five of its members of Parliament, depriving the government of its majority. He subsequently joined Pro DM.

Opinion polling

Polling firm	Fieldwork date	Sample size	SPD	CDU	PRO	GAL	FDP	ProDM	Others	Lead
			style="background:Template:Party color;"|	style="background:Template:Party color;"|	style="background:Template:Party color;"|	style="background:Template:Party color;"|	style="background:Template:Party color;"|
2004 state election	29 Feb 2004	–	30.5	Template:Party shading/CDU| 47.2	0.4	12.3	2.8	3.1	3.7	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 16.7
Emnid	20–26 Feb 2004	1,009	30	Template:Party shading/CDU| 44	1	14	4	4	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 14
Emnid	24 Feb 2004	1,000	30	Template:Party shading/CDU| 46	1	13	3	3	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 16
Forsa	18–23 Feb 2004	1,005	29	Template:Party shading/CDU| 45	1	14	4	3	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 16
Psephos	19–22 Feb 2004	1,003	30	Template:Party shading/CDU| 46	1	12	3.5	3.5	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 16
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen	16–19 Feb 2004	1,008	29	Template:Party shading/CDU| 47	–	13	4	3	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 18
Infratest dimap	12–16 Feb 2004	1,000	29	Template:Party shading/CDU| 45	1	14	4	4	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 16
Forsa	10–14 Feb 2004	1,002	30	Template:Party shading/CDU| 45	1	14	4	3	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 15
Forsa	6–9 Feb 2004	804	29	Template:Party shading/CDU| 46	1	14	4	3	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 17
Infratest dimap	28 Jan–1 Feb 2004	1,000	30	Template:Party shading/CDU| 45	1	15	3	3	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 15
Forsa	20–24 Jan 2004	1,001	28	Template:Party shading/CDU| 48	1	13	4	3	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 20
Emnid	19 Jan 2004	1,000	31	Template:Party shading/CDU| 46	2	12	4	2	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 15
Infratest dimap	8–12 Jan 2004	1,000	30	Template:Party shading/CDU| 45	1	13	4	4	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 15
Psephos	9 Jan 2004	1,002	30	Template:Party shading/CDU| 47	2	11	2	4	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 17
Forsa	17 Dec 2003	?	31	Template:Party shading/CDU| 46	3	13	4	–	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 15
Infratest	10–11 Dec 2003	1,000	33	Template:Party shading/CDU| 43	4	12	4	–	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 10
Emnid	10 Dec 2003	1,000	37	Template:Party shading/CDU| 43	2	12	4	–	2	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 6
Psephos	9–10 Dec 2003	808	36	Template:Party shading/CDU| 41	5	11	3	–	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 5
Infratest dimap	8–9 Dec 2003	1,000	35	Template:Party shading/CDU| 40	5	13	4	–	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 5
Emnid	2–3 Dec 2003	1,000	35	Template:Party shading/CDU| 41	5	13	3	–	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 6
Psephos	10 Oct 2003	?	37	Template:Party shading/CDU| 39	6	10	4	–	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 2
Infratest dimap	5–9 Sep 2003	1,000	36	Template:Party shading/CDU| 39	5	13	4	–	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 3
Psephos	23 Aug 2003	731	36	Template:Party shading/CDU| 40	6	10	5	–	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 4
NFO Infratest	20–21 Aug 2003	~1,000	37	Template:Party shading/CDU| 40	5	11	4	–	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 3
Emnid	20 Aug 2003	1,002	35	Template:Party shading/CDU| 38	6	13	5	–	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 3
Emnid	4–5 Feb 2003	1,000	26	Template:Party shading/CDU| 42	12	13	5	–	2	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 16
Psephos	25 Oct 2002	1,003	Template:Party shading/SPD| 36	34	8	13	5	–	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 2
Emnid	7 Feb 2002	?	Template:Party shading/SPD| 37	32	12	9	6	–	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 5
Emnid	2–4 Feb 2002	1,008	Template:Party shading/SPD| 40	32	10	11	4	–	3	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 8
Psephos	2 Feb 2002	1,003	Template:Party shading/SPD| 36	32	14	9	5	–	4	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 4
Forsa	22–23 Jan 2002	1,001	Template:Party shading/SPD| 35	31	15	10	4	–	5	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 4
2001 state election	23 Sep 2001	–	Template:Party shading/SPD| 36.5	26.2	19.4	8.6	5.1	0.2	4.0	style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 10.3

Election result

Summary of the 29 February 2004 election results for the Hamburg ParliamentTemplate:Election table/category

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-	Seats %
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	389,170	47.2	Increase21.0	63	Increase30	52.1
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	251,441	30.5	Decrease6.0	41	Decrease5	33.9
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Green Alternative List (GAL)	101,227	12.3	Increase3.7	17	Increase6	14.0
	Pro Deutsche Mitte – Initiative Pro D-Mark (Pro DM)	25,763	3.1	Increase2.9	0	±0	0
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	23,373	2.8	Decrease2.3	0	Decrease6	0
	Rainbow – For a new left (REGENBOGEN)	9,200	1.1	Decrease0.6	0	±0	0
	The Grays – Gray Panthers (GRAUEN)	8,878	1.1	Increase1.1	0	±0	0
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Others	15,265	1.9		0	Decrease25	0
Total		824,317	100.0		121	±0
Voter turnout			68.7	Decrease2.4

Popular Vote CDU   47.21% SPD   30.50% GAL   12.28% PRO DM   3.13% FDP   2.84% Other   4.04%

Bürgerschaft seats CDU   52.07% SPD   33.88% GAL   14.05%

See also

• Hamburg state elections in the Weimar Republic
• 2008 Hamburg state election

External links

• The Federal Returning Officer