# 2008 Lower Saxony state election

The 2008 Lower Saxony state election was held on 27 January 2008 to elect the members of the 16th Landtag of Lower Saxony. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Christian Wulff was re-elected with a reduced majority.

## Campaign

Lower Saxony was seen as a stronghold of the Christian Democratic Union and their leader Christian Wulff was seen as likely to easily defeat the Social Democrats. The election in Lower Saxony took place on the same day as the 2008 Hessian state election; Wulff was seen as a more moderate leader than Roland Koch in Hesse and consequently more likely to perform better in the election. The CDU government had held spending down, introduced tuition fees for university students, while supporting the minimum wage. The Social Democrats (SPD) led their campaign with a call for a national minimum wage for all workers. The SPD leader in Lower Saxony, Wolfgang Jüttner, was little known to voters and unusually during the campaign made an attack on Wolff for his personal life.

## Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 15th Landtag of Lower Saxony.
| Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Leader(s) | 2003 result | 2003 result |
| Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Leader(s) | Votes (%) | Seats |
| | CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands | Christian democracy | Christian Wulff | 48.3% | 91 / 183 |
| | SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands | Social democracy | Wolfgang Jüttner | 33.6% | 63 / 184 |
| | FDP | Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei | Classical liberalism | Philipp Rösler | 8.1% | 15 / 183 |
| | Grüne | Alliance 90/The Greens Bündnis 90/Die Grünen | Green politics | Stefan Wenzel | 7.6% | 14 / 183 |

## Opinion polling

| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | CDU | SPD | FDP | Grüne | Linke | Others | Lead |
| 2008 state election | 27 Jan 2008 | – | 42.5 | 30.3 | 8.2 | 8.0 | 7.1 | 3.9 | 12.2 |
| Forschungsgruppe Wahlen | 14–17 Jan 2008 | 1,001 | 46 | 33 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 13 |
| Infratest dimap | 14–16 Jan 2008 | 1,000 | 44 | 34 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| Infratest dimap | 2–4 Jan 2008 | 1,000 | 45 | 33 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 12 |
| Emnid | 10 Dec 2007 – 2 Jan 2008 | 800 | 45 | 32 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 13 |
| AMR Düsseldorf | 29 Dec 2007 | 1,000 | 44 | 34 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| Forschungsgruppe Wahlen | 4–6 Dec 2007 | 1,056 | 44 | 34 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 10 |
| Infratest dimap | 2–5 Nov 2007 | 1,000 | 44 | 33 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 11 |
| Infratest dimap | 5–10 Oct 2007 | 1,001 | 45 | 33 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 12 |
| Emnid | 2–6 Oct 2007 | 1,000 | 45 | 31 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 14 |
| Infratest dimap | 3–5 Sep 2007 | 1,000 | 44 | 34 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| Forsa | 1–14 Aug 2007 | 1,160 | 47 | 29 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 18 |
| Forsa | 14–29 May 2007 | 1,047 | 46 | 29 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 17 |
| Infratest | 3–6 May 2007 | 1,000 | 41 | 36 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Forsa | 29 Jan–13 Feb 2007 | 1,193 | 46 | 29 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 17 |
| Infratest dimap | 19–24 Jan 2007 | 1,000 | 43 | 34 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| Forsa | 2–14 Nov 2006 | 1,080 | 45 | 29 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Forsa | 25 Sep–17 Oct 2006 | 1,054 | 44 | 30 | 10 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 14 |
| Infratest dimap | 23–27 Aug 2006 | 1,000 | 40 | 36 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Forsa | 17 Jul–1 Aug 2006 | 1,086 | 46 | 31 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| Forsa | 17 May–6 Jun 2006 | 1,039 | 42 | 36 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Infratest dimap | 17–22 Feb 2006 | 1,000 | 42 | 37 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| Emnid | 7–12 Feb 2005 | 1,000 | 43 | 37 | 7 | 10 | – | 3 | 6 |
| Emnid | 28 Feb 2005 | ? | 44 | 34 | 7 | 10 | – | 5 | 10 |
| Infratest dimap | 26–31 Jan 2004 | 1,000 | 51 | 29 | 8 | 8 | – | 4 | 22 |
| GMS | 28 Nov–1 Dec 2003 | 1,000 | 48.5 | 30.5 | 8.5 | 9.0 | – | 3.5 | 17.0 |
| Emnid | 27–31 May 2003 | 1,000 | 48 | 31 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 17 |
| 2003 state election | 2 Feb 2003 | – | 48.3 | 33.4 | 8.1 | 7.6 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 14.9 |

## Election result

Summary of the 27 January 2008 election results for the Landtag of Lower Saxony :
| Party | Party | Votes | % | +/- | Seats | +/- | Seats % |
| | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 1,455,687 | 42.5 | 5.8 | 68 | 23 | 44.7 |
| | Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 1,035,894 | 30.3 | 3.1 | 48 | 15 | 31.6 |
| | Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 279,557 | 8.2 | 0.1 | 13 | 2 | 8.6 |
| | Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 273,934 | 8.0 | 0.4 | 12 | 2 | 7.9 |
| | The Left (Linke) | 243,106 | 7.1 | 6.6 | 11 | 11 | 7.2 |
| | National Democratic Party (NPD) | 52,817 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 0 | ±0 | 0 |
| | Others | 81,557 | 2.4 | | 0 | ±0 | 0 |
| Total | Total | 3,422,552 | 100.0 | | 152 | 31 | |
| Voter turnout | Voter turnout | | 57.0 | 10.0 | | | |
Popular Vote
CDU
42.53%
SPD
30.27%
FDP
8.17%
B'90/GRÜNE
8.00%
DIE LINKE
7.10%
Other
3.93% :
Landtag seats
CDU
44.74%
SPD
31.58%
FDP
8.55%
B'90/GRÜNE
7.89%
DIE LINKE
7.24% :

## Outcome

The results saw the Christian Democratic Union easily defeat the Social Democrats, despite suffering a drop in votes and seats. As a result, their leader Christian Wulff was seen as having strengthened his chances of succeeding national CDU leader Angela Merkel. The 30.3% of the vote that the Social Democrats won was the worst performance by the party in Lower Saxony since the Second World War, which was described as a 'disaster' for the party. Turnout in the election was 57%.
The Left entered the Landtag for the first time with 7.1% of the vote, comfortably exceeding the 5% electoral threshold. Along with the election in Hesse held on the same day in which The Left also won seats, this was the first time they had achieved representation in any large state in western Germany.