2008 Bavarian state election
state election in Bavaria, Germany

The 2008 Bavarian state election was held on 28 September 2008 to elect the members of the Landtag of Bavaria. The result was a historic defeat for the Christian Social Union (CSU), which had governed with a majority uninterrupted since 1962, and had won over 60% of the vote in the 2003 election. Despite polling suggesting that the party would retain its majority with losses, it suffered a 17% swing and came up two seats short of a majority, its worst result since 1954. Minister-President and CSU leader Günther Beckstein subsequently resigned from both posts, and the Landtag elected Horst Seehofer as his successor after the CSU and Free Democratic Party (FDP) came to a coalition agreement.
The Free Voters of Bavaria entered the Landtag for the first time with 10% of the vote; the FDP also won seats for the first time in 14 years. The Left competed in its first Bavarian election, recording a modest result of 4.3%, but failing to win any seats.
Parties
The table below lists parties represented in the 15th Landtag of Bavaria.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “2008 Bavarian state election” as state election in Bavaria, Germany. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as state election in Bavaria, Germany. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q258560. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008, 1962, 2003 and 1954.
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This entry incorporates text from “2008 Bavarian state election” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.