1974 Hessian state election
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All 110 seats in the Landtag of Hesse 56 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 3,264,209 (84.8%  2.0pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results for the single-member constituencies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1974 Hessian state election was held on 27 October 1974 to elect the 8th Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Albert Osswald.
The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) achieved a significant victory by becoming the largest party in Hesse for the first time. The state had long been considered a stronghold of the SPD. Despite this, the SPD and FDP retained a narrow majority between them and renewed their coalition for a second term.
The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation. 55 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and 55 then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.
Background
In the previous election held on 8 November 1970, the CDU achieved a major swing and increased its vote share to just under 40%, offering a serious challenge to the SPD for the first time in decades. Though remaining the largest party with 46%, the SPD were deprived of their majority and formed a coalition government with the FDP.
Parties
The table below lists parties represented in the 7th Landtag of Hesse.
| Name | Ideology | Lead candidate |
1970 result | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | |||||
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands |
Social democracy | Albert Osswald | 45.9% | 53 / 110 | |
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands |
Christian democracy | Alfred Dregger | 39.7% | 46 / 110 | |
| FDP | Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei |
Classical liberalism | Heinz Herbert Karry | 10.1% | 11 / 110 | |
