Bavaria gets a new state parliament every five years – the next time in autumn 2023. The preparations have long been underway, the parties are preparing their campaigns, most of the candidates have been nominated. What is the 2023 state election about, how will it work and who can take part? Answers to the most important questions:
When is the state election in Bavaria?
The next state parliament will be elected in Bavaria on October 8, 2023. The state government set this date in mid-December 2022. The district elections will also take place on this day.
What and who is elected?
The citizens determine the approximately 200 Members of the new state parliament, i.e. the Bavarian state parliament. 91 of them are elected as direct candidates in the constituencies, 89 get into parliament via the lists of the parties – and sometimes there are a few more MPs, namely when there are compensatory mandates (see below “How does the election work ?”).
On this day, the or the is not elected prime minister. In Bavaria – just like in the federal government and unlike in the USA or France – there is no direct election of the head of government. The state parliament determines this, and it must do so no later than four weeks after the election. Indirectly, however, the citizens do decide who will govern them in the future. Because the government in Bavaria was almost always led by the party that was the strongest party in the state parliament, the CSU. (With one exception: from 1954 to 1957, Wilhelm Hoegner of the SPD was Prime Minister, although the CSU was the largest parliamentary group at the time.)
Incidentally, at the same time as the state elections, the seven Bavarian district days elected for Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Upper Palatinate, Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia, Lower Franconia and Swabia, but they have far fewer powers than the state parliament and are therefore less well known.
Which parties are running for election?
A total of 19 parties are allowed to compete this time, that’s what the state electoral committee decided. On the one hand, there are all the parties that have already sat in the state parliament or the Bundestag – that is CSU, Greens, Free Voters, SPD, AfD, FDP and Left. And twelve other parties, some of which are better known, such as the ÖDP or the Bavarian Party, while others are more splinter groups such as the Party for Conventional Medical Rejuvenation Research or the Party for Change, Vegetarians and Vegans. The complete listing can be found here.
It is questionable whether these parties will then also submit lists for all administrative districts and whether all their proposed candidates will be admitted. It is therefore not finally clear until mid-August who will stand for election and where.
A curious side note: The CDU and the South Schleswig Voters’ Association are also allowed to submit their own lists for the state elections, because they too sit in the Bundestag. That they actually compete is only a theoretical option.
These are the top candidates
In the big parties, it is already clear who their top candidate will be: it will be with the CSU Markus Soder Prime Minister since March 2018 and party chairman since 2019. The Free Voters will again be supported by Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger led to the election.
The Social Democrats and the FDP have each decided on their parliamentary group and state leader: With the SPD that is Florian von Brunnat the FDP Martin Hagen. As in 2018, the Greens are relying on a double candidacy Catherine Schulze and Ludwig Hartmann, the two chairmen of the parliamentary group. A duo is also leading the election campaign for the AfD, they are Katrin Ebner-Steiner and Martin Boehm.
Who sits in the state parliament so far and what does he actually do?
belong to the state legislature currently 205 MPs 150 of them are men. When it comes to the distribution of seats, the relatively high number of eight non-affiliated is striking: five of them left the AfD parliamentary group during the legislative period, two the CSU parliamentary group and one the SPD parliamentary group.
The state legislature has four main tasks:
- It decides the laws that apply in Bavaria: Although the government usually submits a draft, Parliament has the last word. One problem for the state parliament is that the federal government is responsible for many policy areas; state policy therefore has little room for manoeuvre. School policy, for example, is purely a matter for the federal states.
- He decides the budget: Every euro that the authorities of the Free State spend must be approved by Parliament. Regardless of whether it is about salaries for teachers and police officers, subsidies for new clinics or regional train connections.
- It elects the prime minister and then confirms the other members of his cabinet.
- He controls the government and the entire state administration: This not only means that members of parliament can address questions to ministries or tap the responsible minister on the knuckles if something is sloppy or dawdling somewhere. This also means that the opposition in Parliament shows what they think is politically wrong and how they could do it better. In special cases, it can also set up a committee of inquiry that can examine files and summon and question people, as in a court of law.
Who rules in Bavaria?
Almost always the CSU – sometimes with, mostly without coalition partners: since 1946, since the first state elections after the war, the Prime Minister has always been a Christian Socialist, with the exception of the years 1954 to 1957, when Wilhelm Hoegner (SPD) led the state government. Currently reigns in Bavaria Coalition of Christian Socialists and Free Voterssince the CSU under Markus Söder lost its absolute majority in the 2018 state election.
Soder’s cabinet currently comprises 18 people: himself, four male and female ministers, one male and two female secretaries of state. Five of them are Free Voters.
How does the election work?
Each voter has two votes: a first and a second vote. With the first vote he votes for a direct candidate in his constituency (there are 91 of them in Bavaria). His second voice he can give to a candidate on one of the lists of the parties.
For the question of which party gets how many seats, not only the second votes are decisive – unlike in the Bundestag elections, but the Total number of first and second votes for a party. It gets if it receives more than five percent of the votes in Bavaria (five percent hurdle), assigned as many mandates as she is proportionately entitled to based on her results. These seats go first to all elected direct candidates of this party, i.e. to all those who received the most votes in their constituency. If the party is then entitled to further seats, these go to theirs in turn list candidateswho received the most votes (first and second votes are added together for this as well). Again and again, candidates on the lower list places make it into parliament because they are known and their name is ticked by many people. If a party has not received a direct mandate, all of its seats will of course be filled with list candidates.
Elected direct candidates always move into the state parliament (if their party has cleared the five percent hurdle). In the 2018 election, the CSU won 85 direct mandates, according to the overall result, she should have only had 75 MPs. These ten came into the state parliament anyway (one speaks here of so-called overhang mandates). And so that this does not distort the election result, the other parties were given so-called compensation mandates awarded. That is why the current state parliament has 205 members, and not 180, as actually provided for in the constitution.
This election and seat distribution system also applies to the district elections that are taking place at the same time – only that fewer mandates are awarded there.
Who can vote?
All Germans who are at least 18 years old on the day of the state elections, who have lived in Bavaria for at least three months or who “usually reside” here, as the law says, and who have not lost their voting rights through a court decision, are allowed to vote.
All of these people may also stand as candidates if they are nominated by a party or voter group that is allowed to vote (see above “Which parties are running for elections?”).