1978 Bavarian state election

1978 Bavarian state election

← 1974 15 October 1978 1982 →
All 204 seats in the Landtag of Bavaria 103 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	11,468,095 (76.6%) 1.0%
First party Second party   Leader Franz Strauss Helmut Rothemund Party CSU SPD Last election 132 seats, 62.1% 64 seats, 30.2% Seats won 129 65 Seat change 3 1 Popular vote 6,782,091 3,599,479 Percentage 59.1% 31.4% Swing 3.0% 1.2%   Third party   Party FDP Last election 8 seats, 5.2% Seats won 10 Seat change 2 Popular vote 711,348 Percentage 6.2% Swing 1.0%
Results for the single-member constituencies.
Minister-President before election Alfons Goppel CSU Elected Minister-President Franz Strauss CSU

Alfons Goppel (CSU) had already announced before the election that he would not run for another term as Bavarian Minister-President after 16 years of service. The CSU chairman Franz Josef Strauss, the then economic and fiscal spokesman of the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag, therefore took over the top candidacy and thus ran to be Goppel's successor.

Helmut Rothemund, who took over the state presidency of Hans-Jochen Vogel in 1977, was the first member of the SPD.

After the election, the CSU formed a government under the leadership of Strauss.^[1]