Hessen Votes Today

Today is a big vote in the German federal state of Hessen. The biggest thing at stake is who will be the Minister President for Hessen.

Roland Koch, who is the current Minister President is from the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and he failed to get enough votes to keep the position nor was he able to wrangle enough votes to keep the position via a coalition. Andrea Ypsilanti from the SPD (Social Democratic Party) is his main competitor for the position. In the primary election, Ypsilanti ended up with 36.7%, 1% less than Koch. She promised that she would not form a colition with die Linke party (the Left party), but as the saga dragged on she attempted to do just that. When a vote was held about forming the colition, she came up short, notably Dagmar Metzger kept a promise not to line up with die Linke.

The Hessen Parliment is located in Wiesbaden and the largest city is Frankfurt. The outcome of the Minister President for Hessen will influence the direction that Hessen takes and it could branch out effecting national politics as well.

As an American citizen, I don't believe that I'm able to vote but I'm certainly interested in the outcome. There are a lot of discussions about the future that the educational system and this will effect the choices that we can make for our kids in Hessen.

I found a good synapsis setting up the first election (held January 27, 2008) at All Things German (this is one of the better things that I have found written in English). The Frankfurter Allgemeine has quite a section with several articles about the Hessen vote, (in German).

I hope that the results from today are clear and that the process doesn't continue to drag on!

Photo credit: This is a picture that I took of the Frankfurt skyline from the balcony of a friend or ours in September 2008.