West German federal election, 1972

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The 7th German federal election, 1972, was conducted on November 19, 1972, to elect members to the Bundestag (parliament) of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Contents 1 Issues and Campaign 2 Results 3 Post-election 4 Sources 5 External links

[edit] Issues and Campaign

The SPD/FDP-coalition had lost its majority because some SPD and FDP members of Bundestag left their party and became members of the CDU/CSU to protest against Chancellor Willy Brandt's policy of Neue Ostpolitik. The CDU/CSU had tried to make their leader Rainer Barzel new Chancellor, but Barzel did not receive enough votes. Later it was found out that two members of CDU/CSU faction had been paid by GDR secret service.

In the campaign, the CDU/CSU attacked Brandt as being to leaniant towards Eastern Europe and having wrong ideas on the economy. SPD and FDP profited from the enormous personal popularity of the chancellor, who had received the Nobel Prize for Peace of 1971.

[edit] Results

	Party	Party List votes	Vote percentage (change)		Total Seats (change)		Seat percentage
	Social Democratic Party	17,175,169	45.8%	+3.1%	230	+6	46.4%
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	3,129,982	8.4%	+2.6%	41	+11	8.3%
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	13,190,837	35.2%	-1.4%	177	-16	35.7%
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	3,615,183	9.6%	+0.2%	48	-1	9.7%
	All Others	348,579	0.9%		0		0.0%
	Totals	37,459,750	100.0%		496	+0	100.0%

[edit] Post-election

The coalition between the SPD and the FDP returned to government, with Willy Brandt as Chancellor. In 1974, Brandt would resign in a scandal over one of his aides, but the coalition would continue under Helmut Schmidt.

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[edit] Sources

• The Federal Returning Officer
• Psephos

[edit] External links

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