The 2012 Landtag Election in Saarland: The End of a Coalition Experiment

Abstract

On 25 March 2012, early elections were held in Saarland after the minister-president had called the end of the coalition on Epiphany in January this year. After 788 days in government, the experiment with the so-called Jamaica coalition was over. The announcement was accompanied by an invitation for coalition talks directed at the Social Democrats to form a grand coalition and a stable government. This election report focuses on the special circumstances of Länder elections in Saarland, the failure of its recent coalition experiment and the potential trend of grand coalitions in other Länder or at the federal level.

Keywords:

• Landtag Elections
• Germany
• Saarland

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Stephan Kühnle for his assistance in the research for this report that has been exceedingly helpful. All remaining errors are of course only my own.