The 1998 Lower Saxony state election was held on 1 March 1998 to elect the members of the 14th Landtag of Lower Saxony. The incumbent Social Democratic Party (SPD) government led by Minister-President Gerhard Schröder was returned with an increased majority. Schröder was subsequently re-elected as minister-president.
Schröder took the election as a test run for a potential federal election in September. He said that if the SPD received less than 42 percent of the vote, he would rule out a bid to become the party's chancellor candidate. Achieving 47.9 percent of the vote, he later announced his (successful) candidacy and went on to form the first federal SPD-led government since 1982.
Parties
The table below lists parties represented in the 13th Landtag of Lower Saxony.
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan=2 colspan=3| Name
! rowspan=2| Ideology
! rowspan=2| Leader(s)
! colspan=2| 1994 result
|-
! Votes (%)
! Seats
|-
| bgcolor= |
| align=center| SPD
| Social Democratic Party of Germany<br>
| Social democracy
| Gerhard Schröder
| align=center| 44.3%
|
|-
| bgcolor= |
| align=center| CDU
| Christian Democratic Union of Germany<br>
| Christian democracy
| Christian Wulff
| align=center| 36.4%
|
|-
| bgcolor= |
| align=center| Grüne
| Alliance 90/The Greens<br>
| Green politics
|
| align=center| 7.4%
|
|}
Election result
|-
! colspan="2" | Party
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
! Seats %
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left | Social Democratic Party (SPD)
| align=right| 2,068,477
| align=right| 47.9
| align=right| 3.6
| align=right| 83
| align=right| 2
| align=right| 52.9
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left | Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
| align=right| 1,549,227
| align=right| 35.9
| align=right| 0.5
| align=right| 62
| align=right| 5
| align=right| 39.5
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left | Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
| align=right| 304,193
| align=right| 7.0
| align=right| 0.4
| align=right| 12
| align=right| 1
| align=right| 7.6
|-
! colspan=8|
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left | Free Democratic Party (FDP)
| align=right| 209,610
| align=right| 4.9
| align=right| 0.5
| align=right| 0
| align=right| ±0
| align=right| 0
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left | The Republicans (REP)
| align=right| 118,975
| align=right| 2.8
| align=right| 0.9
| align=right| 0
| align=right| ±0
| align=right| 0
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left | Others
| align=right| 64,450
| align=right| 1.5
| align=right|
| align=right| 0
| align=right| ±0
| align=right| 0
|-
! align=right colspan=2| Total
! align=right| 4,314,932
! align=right| 100.0
! align=right|
! align=right| 157
! align=right| 4
! align=right|
|-
! align=right colspan=2| Voter turnout
! align=right|
! align=right| 73.8
! align=right| 0.0
! align=right|
! align=right|
! align=right|
|}
References
Sources
- The Federal Returning Officer