GERMANY: BAVARIAN ELECTIONS YIELD MIXED RESULTS FOR HELMUT KOHL'S COALITION PARTNERS

Record ID: 646462

  • Title: GERMANY: BAVARIAN ELECTIONS YIELD MIXED RESULTS FOR HELMUT KOHL'S COALITION PARTNERS
  • Date: 25th September 1994
  • Summary: MUNICH, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 25, 1994) (REUTERS TELEVISION-ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: CHRISTIAN SOCIAL UNION (CSU) STATE PREMIER EDMUND STOIBER WALKING THROUGH CROWD 0.09 2. GV: PEOPLE WATCHING ELECTION RESULTS ON TELEVISION (2 SHOTS) 0.30 4. SV; SOCIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY (SDP) LEADER RENATE SCHMIDT WALKING THROUGH CROWD 0.44 5. GV: CSU CHAIRMAN THEO WAIGEL ARRIVING 1.04 6. GV: STOIBER GIVING TELEVISION INTERVIEW 1.14 7. GV; SCHMIDT BEING INTERVIEWED (2 SHOTS) 1.24 8. GV: PEOPLE GETTING FOOD AND DRINK AND WATCHING RESULTS (2 SHOTS) 1.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 10th October 1994 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MUNICH, GERMANY
  • Reuters ID: LVA1MWQCUEPYRSWNYQU41F60886Z
  • Story Text: Coalition partners of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl suffered mixed fortunes in state elections in Bavaria on Sunday (September 25) ahead of a national poll in mid-October.

    The Christian Social Union (CSU), the conservative sister party of Kohl's Christian Democrats (CDU), secured a solid 52.8 percent of the vote in the ballot.

    The CSU has ruled the state for 37 years.

    But Kohl's other coalition partners in Bonn, the Free Democrats (FDP), polled just 2.8 percent, insufficient to enter the state parliament, in the last electoral test before the October polls.

    It was the seventh successive election defeat for the FDP since Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel took over the leadership of the small liberal party last year.

    CSU chairman Theo Waigel, Germany's finance minister, said his party's victory proved the CSU and the CDU would win a "strategic majority" in Bonn.

    Bavarian CSU Premier Edmund Stoiber welcomed the victory, and noted that the electorate shunned the far-right Republicans, whose support had run high in similar polls four years ago. They failed to win seats in Bavaria, regarded as their heartland.

    The opposition Social Democrats (SPD), led by the Bonn parliament's deputy speaker Renate Schmidt, said its four point jump to 30.1 percent showed its support was increasing in the weeks before the national poll.

    Election supervisors said voter turnout in Bavaria, Germany's second most populous state with 8.7 million voters, appeared to have improved over the last elections four years ago, when a record state low of 65.9 percent was set.


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