1966 Hessian state election

The 1966 Hessian state election was held on 6 November 1966 to elect the 6th Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was a majority of the Social Democratic Party and led by Minister-President Georg-August Zinn.
The SPD retained its majority and remained stable on 51%. The opposition Christian Democratic Union slipped to 26%, and the Free Democratic Party 10%. The GDP, which had been in government with the SPD since 1955, fell to 4% and lost its representation in the Landtag. In its place the new radical right-wing National Democratic Party, led by former FDP politician Heinrich Fassbender, won 8% and 8 seats. This marked the party's first entry into a state parliament and attracted great attention and concern both domestically and internationally. After the election, the SPD chose to govern alone and Minister-President Zinn continued in office.

Electoral system

The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation. 48 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and 48 then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.

Background

In the previous election held on 11 November 1962, the SPD won an absolute majority of both votes and seats for the first time. This came to the detriment of both the CDU and GDP. Despite being able to govern alone, the SPD retained the GDP in its coalition.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 5th Landtag of Hesse.