1976 West German federal election

Federal elections were held in West Germany on 3 October 1976 to elect the members of the eighth Bundestag. Although the CDU/CSU alliance became the largest faction in parliament, Helmut Schmidt of the Social Democratic Party remained Chancellor.

1976 West German federal election
3 October 1976 (1976-10-03)
All 518 seats in the Bundestag
260 seats needed for a majority
Registered42,058,015 1.5%
Turnout38,165,753 (90.7%)[1]
0.4%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Helmut Kohl Helmut Schmidt Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP
Leader since 12 June 1973 16 May 1974[lower-alpha 1] 1 October 1974
Leader's seat Rhineland-Palatinate Bergedorf North Rhine-Westphalia
Last election 234 seats, 44.9% 242, 45.8% 42 seats, 8.4%
Seats won 254 224 40
Seat change 20 18 2
Popular vote 18,394,801 16,099,019 2,995,085
Percentage 48.6% 42.6% 7.9%
Swing 3.7% 3.2% 0.5%
Results by constituency for the first votes. Grey denotes seats won by the CDU/CSU; red denotes seats won by the SPD.
Chancellor before election

Helmut Schmidt
SPD

 Elected Chancellor

Helmut Schmidt
SPD

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.

Results

 Summary of the 3 October 1976 German Bundestag election results
Parties Constituency Party list Total seats
Votes % +/− Seats +/− Votes % +/− Seats +/− Seats† +/− %
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 16,471,321 43.7 −5.2 114 −38 16,099,019 42.6 −3.2 100 +22 224 −18 43.2
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 14,423,157 38.3 +2.6 94 +29 14,367,302 38.0 +2.8 96 −18 201 +15 38.8
Christian Social Union (CSU) 4,008,514 10.6 +0.9 40 +9 4,027,499 10.6 +0.9 13 −4 53 +5 10.2
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 2,417,683 6.4 +1.6 0 ±0 2,995,085 7.9 −0.5 39 −2 40 −2 7.7
National Democratic Party (NPD) 136,028 0.4 −0.1 0 ±0 122,661 0.3 −0.3 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
German Communist Party (DKP) 170,855 0.5 +0.1 0 ±0 118,581 0.3 ±0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Communist Party of Germany (KPD-AO) 8,822 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 22,714 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Action Community of Independent Germans (AUD) 19,490 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 22,202 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Communist League of West Germany (KBW) 21,414 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 20,018 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
European Workers' Party (EAP) 3,177 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 6,811 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Christian Bavarian People's Party (CBV) 4,876 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 6,720 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
International Marxist Group (GIM) 2,037 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 4,759 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Action Community Fourth Party (AVP) 2,636 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 4,723 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
5%-Block 985 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 2,940 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Independent Workers' Party (UAP) 499 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 765 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
United Left (VL) 217 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 701 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
RFP 227 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 – – – – – 0 ±0 0
Electoral groups and independents 3,706 0.0 ±0 0 ±0 – – – – – 0 ±0 0
Invalid/blank votes 470,109 — — — — 343,253 — — — — — — —
Totals 38,165,753 100 ±0.0 248 ±0 38,165,753 100 ±0.0 248 ±0 518 ±0 ±0
Registered voters/turnout 42,058,015 90.7 — — — 42,058,015 90.7 — — — — — —
Source: Federal Returning Officer
^† — includes the non-voting delegates for West Berlin (11 CDU, 10 SPD, 1 FDP).
↓
224 40 254
SPD FDP CDU/CSU
Popular Vote
CDU/CSU
 
 48.63%
SPD
 
 42.56%
FDP
 
 7.92%
Other
 
 0.88%
Bundestag seats
CDU/CSU
 
 48.99%
SPD
 
 43.15%
FDP
 
 7.86%

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
  1. Schmidt succeeded Willy Brandt as Chancellor on 16 May 1974, but did not become leader of the SPD.

References
  1. "Voter turnout by election year". Website of the Federal Returning Officer's Office. The Federal Returning Officer. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
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