1976 West German federal election
Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox electionTemplate:Sidebar with collapsible lists Federal elections were held in West Germany on 3 October 1976 to elect the members of the 8th Bundestag. Although the CDU/CSU alliance became the largest faction in parliament, Helmut Schmidt of the Social Democratic Party remained Chancellor.
Campaign
The coalition of the SPD and the FDP wanted to be re-elected, with the SPD, since 1974 led by Helmut Schmidt, the party's candidate for Chancellor. The CDU and the CSU tried to achieve an absolute majority of the votes to make CDU chairman Helmut Kohl Chancellor, but they fell six seats short of their target.
Opinion polls
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size |
Union | SPD | FDP | Others | Abstention | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| style="background:Template:Party color;"| | style="background:Template:Party color;"| | style="background:Template:Party color;"| | ||||||
| 1976 federal election | 3 Oct 1976 | – | 48.6 | 42.6 | 7.9 | 0.9 | 9.3 | style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;"| 6.1 |
| Emnid for SPIEGEL | Sep 1976 | N/A | 49 | 41 | 8 | 2 | — | style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;" | 8 |
| Emnid for SPIEGEL | Aug 1976 | N/A | 48 | 43 | 7 | 2 | — | style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;" | 5 |
| Emnid for SPIEGEL | Jul 1976 | N/A | 47 | 44 | 8 | 1 | — | style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;" | 3 |
| Emnid for SPIEGEL | Jun 1976 | N/A | 51 | 41 | 8 | 0 | — | style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;" | 10 |
| Allensbach | Nov/Dec 1975 | N/A | 50.7 | 39.7 | 8.6 | 1.0 | — | style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;" | 10.0 |
| Infratest | Nov/Dec 1975 | N/A | 47 | 40 | 11 | 2 | — | style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;" | 7 |
| Emnid | Nov/Dec 1975 | N/A | 45 | 43 | 10 | 2 | — | style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;" | 2 |
| 1972 federal election | 19 Nov 1972 | – | 44.9 | 45.8 | 8.4 | 0.6 | 8.9 | style="background:Template:Party color;color:#FFFFFF;" data-sort-value="-0.9"| 0.9 |
Results
Results by state
Constituency seats
| State | Total seats |
Seats won | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | CDU | CSU | ||
| style="background:Template:Party color;" | | style="background:Template:Party color;" | | style="background:Template:Party color;" | | ||
| Baden-Württemberg | 36 | 4 | 32 | |
| Bavaria | 44 | 4 | 40 | |
| Bremen | 3 | 3 | ||
| Hamburg | 8 | 8 | ||
| Hesse | 22 | 17 | 5 | |
| Lower Saxony | 30 | 18 | 12 | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 73 | 45 | 28 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 16 | 6 | 10 | |
| Saarland | 5 | 3 | 2 | |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 11 | 6 | 5 | |
| Total | 248 | 114 | 94 | 40 |
List seats
| State | Total seats |
Seats won | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | CDU | FDP | CSU | ||
| style="background:Template:Party color;" | | style="background:Template:Party color;" | | style="background:Template:Party color;" | | style="background:Template:Party color;" | | ||
| Baden-Württemberg | 35 | 22 | 6 | 7 | |
| Bavaria | 44 | 25 | 6 | 13 | |
| Bremen | 2 | 2 | |||
| Hamburg | 6 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Hesse | 25 | 5 | 16 | 4 | |
| Lower Saxony | 32 | 11 | 16 | 5 | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 75 | 25 | 38 | 12 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 15 | 7 | 6 | 2 | |
| Saarland | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Schleswig-Holstein | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | |
| Total | 248 | 100 | 96 | 39 | 13 |
Aftermath
The coalition between the SPD and the FDP remained in government, with Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor. Between the "sister parties" of CDU and Bavarian CSU there emerged a critical conflict, as the CSU leader Franz Josef Strauß wanted to break both the united Bundestag group of the parties and the agreement not to compete against each other in any Land. Later, this attack was withdrawn, while Strauß became candidate for chancellor for the 1980 elections.
Notes
Template:Sister project Template:Notelist