The Berlin state election, 2001, was conducted on October 21, 2001, to elect members to the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Deputies) of Berlin. October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... (help· info) is the capital city and a state of Germany. ...

Issues and Campaign

The 2001 election was a premature election. In June 2001, the grand coalition under Eberhard Diepgen (CDU) was broken following a scandal about the CDU parliamentary leader Klaus-Rüdiger Landowsky: He had been the CEO of a public mortgage bank at the same time and, in this role, he had financed a risky deal of two men, who had donated money to the local CDU organisation. This scandal cost the city of Berlin several billionas of Euros. The SPD left the coalition, which had governed Berlin since 1990, and formed an interim government with the Greens, that lacked a parliamentary majority and was supported by the socialist PDS. Klaus Wowereit became Governing Mayor after a constructive vote of no confidence against Eberhard Diepgen at June 15. The House of Deputies voted for its self-dissolution. Eberhard Diepgen (born November 13, 1941 in Berlin) is a German politician of the CDU. He studied law at the Free University of Berlin. ... A Mortgage bank specializes in originating and/or servicing mortgage loans. ... PDS can refer to: Party of Democratic Socialism in India The Left Party in Germany (formerly called Party of Democratic Socialism) Processor Direct Slot in some Macintosh computers Parkinsons Disease Society of the UK Punjabi Dental Society based in California Protected Distribution System Princeton Day School, a private middle... The Constructive Vote of No Confidence (in German: konstruktives Misstrauensvotum) is a specialty of the 1949 German constitution, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). ...

The campaign was widely influenced by the bad state of the public finances and the "bank scandal". The CDU nominated the 35-year-old Frank Steffel for mayor and concentrated on the fear before a participation of the ex-communist PDS in the government and on security issues, especially after September 11, 2001.

Results

Seat results -- SDP in red, Greens in green, PDS in purple, FDP in yellow, CDU in black

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU - Christlich-Demokratische Union) is a political party in Germany. ... SPD redirects here. ... Party of Democratic Socialism is a political party in India; see Party of Democratic Socialism (India) the former name of a German political party; see Left Party (Germany). ... Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (literally: Alliance 90/The Greens), the German Green Party, is a political party in Germany whose regional predecessors were founded in the late 1970s as part of the new social movements. ... The Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei - FDP) is a liberal political party in Germany. ... There is open debate on rather facism is rightwing or not. ... The Grays — Gray Panther are a German party and interest group founded by activist Trude Unruh. ... Image File history File links 2001_berlin_landtag_result. ... Image File history File links 2001_berlin_landtag_result. ...

Post-election

The CDU suffered enormous losses, from which all the other parties could profit, but the interim minority government of SPD and Greens had not got a majority. The politically possible options for forming a government were a renewed grand coalition, a traffic-light-coalition between the SPD, the FDP and the Greens, or a red-red coalition of SPD and PDS. Because the grand coalition was just broken five months ago and a cooperation with the PDS, which was the successor of the GDR's communist party, seemed inopportune, the SPD started negotiations with the Greens and the FDP. These negotiations failed, officially due to financial issues. Thus, Wowereit justified the coalition with the PDS as the only possibility remaining. The agenda of the new coalition (the second in a German state after Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) consisted mostly of strict cuts of public spending. A grand coalition is a coalition government in a parliamentary system where political parties representing a vast majority of the parliament unite in a coalition. ... Disambiguation Page Global Depositary Receipt East Germany ... Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (German: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) is a Bundesland (federal state) in northern Germany. ...

Sources

• The Federal Returning Officer