The Politics of Bavaria takes place within a framework of a federalparliamentaryrepresentative democraticrepublic, where the Federal Government of Germany exercises sovereign rights with certain powers reserved to the states of Germany including Bavaria. The state has a multi-party system where the two main parties are the rightist Christian Social Union of Bavaria and the leftist Social Democratic Party of Germany. Bavaria has long been a bastion of conservative politics in Germany, with the Christian Social Union having almost a monopoly on power since its inception in 1946. Every Minister-President since 1957 has been a member of this party. In 1995 the Bavarians decided to introduce direct democracy on the local level in a referendum. This was initiated bottom-up by an association called Mehr Demokratie. This is a grass-roots organization which campaigns for the right to citizen-initiated referendums. In 1997 the Bavarian Supreme Court aggravated the regulations considerably. Nevertheless, Bavaria has the most advanced regulations on local direct democracy in Germany. This has led to a spirited citizens’ participation in communal and municipal affairs – 835 referendums took place from 1995 through 2005. In the 2003 elections the CSU won more than two-thirds of the seats in Landtag. No party in post-war German history had achieved this before. On the other hand the bigger and more liberal, or rather social democratic, cities, especially Munich, have been governed for decades by the SPD. From the historical point of view, older Bavaria was one of the most liberal, predominantly Roman Catholic, states until the rather rural areas of Swabia and Franconia were added in 1814/15 at the Congress of Vienna. In the 2008 elections the CSU lost its own majority after 46 years in the Landtag.
Bavaria has a unicameral Landtag, or state parliament. The 180 members of the Landtag are elected for a period of five years by universal suffrage. Until December 1999, there was also a Senat, or Senate, whose members were chosen by social and economic groups in Bavaria, but following a referendum in 1998, this institution was abolished. The Landtag resides in the Maximilianeum, a building rich in tradition built on the banks of River Isar by King Maximilian II in the 19th century.
The Bavarian State Government is the supreme executive authority of the state. It consists of the Minister-President of Bavaria and up to 17 state ministers and state secretaries. The Minister-President as head of government is elected for a period of five years by the Landtag. With the approval of the Landtag he appoints and dismiss the members of the State Government. The State Government comprises the State Chancellery and ministries for interior, justice, education, science, finance, economic affairs, construction and transport, environment, agriculture, social affairs, health, and digital affairs.
Bavaria state elections
Electoral system
Bavaria, uses mixed-member proportional representation to elect its members of the Landtag. Party representation is not apportioned statewide, the distribution of seats takes place separately within the seven administrative districts, which are referred to in the constitution as constituencies. The constituencies are divided into electoral districts in which one member is directly elected. The number of single member districts is about half the number of seats in the constituency. The distribution of seats by proportional representation takes into account the parties' aggregate first votes combined with their second votes, i.e. both the first and second votes affect the distribution of seats in the Landtag. Only Parties and groups of voters who obtain at least 5% of the total votes in Bavaria participate in the distribution of seats. This threshold also applies to winning single-member districts; a party will forfeit all its district seats that it won if the party did not meet the 5% statewide threshold. Bavaria uses an open-list system for its party-list seats. Voters not only cast a vote for a candidate in their district, but they also cast a vote for a list candidate in their constituency. For the distribution of list seats, all district candidates are also constituency candidates with their parties. The parties may also nominate constituency-only candidates. A candidate is ranked within the list by the number of first votes received within the district plus the number of second votes received from voters elsewhere in the constituency. In this manner, voters collectively produce a list that is different from what the party submitted, which can result in the defeat of candidates that would have been elected had the election taken place under a closed-list system. Since the 2018 election seats and single member districts are distributed as follows:
Constituency
Seats
Single member districts
Upper Bavaria
61
31
Lower Bavaria
18
9
Upper Palatinate
16
8
Upper Franconia
16
8
Middle Franconia
24
12
Lower Franconia
19
10
Swabia
26
13
Total
180
91
Next election
According to the Bavarian Constitution, the election must be held on a Sunday "at the earliest 59 months, at the latest 62 months" after the preceding state elections. The elections since 1978 have always taken place between mid-September and mid-October. The next election is expected to take place 2023.
Past elections
The state election was held on 14 October 2018. The state election was held on 15 September 2013. The CSU won an absolute majority, while the FDP, a coalition party in the outgoing Bavarian government, did not receive enough votes to enter the new parliament. The state election was held on 28 September 2008. The CSU had its worst result since the Adenauer era, and lost its majority in the Landtag for the first time in 46 years.
