1978 Bavarian state election

Alfons Goppel had already announced before the election that he would not run for another term as Bavarian Minister-President after 16 years of service. The CSU chairman Franz Josef Strauss, the then economic and fiscal spokesman of the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag, therefore took over the top candidacy and thus ran to be Goppel's successor.
Helmut Rothemund, who took over the state presidency of Hans-Jochen Vogel in 1977, was the first member of the SPD.
After the election, the CSU formed a government under the leadership of Strauss.

Election result

! colspan="2" | Party
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
! Seats %
! colspan=8|
! align=right colspan=2| Total
! align=right| 11,468,095
! align=right| 100%
! align=right|
! align=right| 204
! align=right| ±0
! align=right|
! align=right colspan=2| Voter turnout
! align=right|
! align=right| 76.6%
! align=right| 1.1%
! align=right|
! align=right|
! align=right|