Local elections were held in the German state of Hesse on 14 March 2021 to elect district, municipal, and city councils and local boards, as well as mayors in some cities and district administrators in some districts. Indirect elections also took place for the Planning Board of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority and the regional councils of Hesse's three governing districts.
All EU citizens aged 18 or over on election day were eligible to vote if they had lived in a municipality for at least six weeks. Eligible voters who were not EU citizens could vote if they had lived in a municipality for at least three months.
Election date Local elections take place every five years in Hesse. The election date of 14 March 2021 was set by the state government on 18 May 2020.
Direct elections for a number of mayors and district administrators were originally scheduled to take place between April and October 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, these were postponed on 24 March 2020 by the Hessian state parliament, and were scheduled to take place on 1 November 2021 at the earliest. However, city and district councils were permitted to hold alongside the regular local elections if they choose to do so. As a result, the district administrators of Bergstraße, Odenwaldkreis, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Kassel, and Hersfeld-Rotenburg and the mayors of Hanau, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Fulda, Marburg, and Wetzlar were elected alongside the local elections on 14 March 2021, with runoffs held as necessary.
Electoral system Bodies with multiple members, such as councils, are elected via proportional representation using panachage. Voters have as many votes as there are seats up for election, which may be cast for candidates in lists. Voters may cast up to three votes for any given candidate, and may cast votes for candidates from multiple lists. Elections to a single position, such as mayors and district administrators, are conducted via the two-round system.
Size of councils The number of members on each district and city/municipal council is determined by the number of residents it serves. For the 2021 elections, figures released by the Hessian State Statistical Office in September 2015 were used. The number of seats on local boards are determined by the statutes of the respective city or municipality. Local boards must comprise between three and nine members, unless the board serves over 8,000 people, in which case it may have up to nineteen members.
District councils City/municipal councils Residents Seats Residents Seats under 100,000 51 under 3,000 15 100,001–150,000 61 3,001–5,000 23 150,001–200,000 71 5,001–10,000 31 200,001–300,000 81 10,001–25,000 37 300,001–400,000 87 25,001–50,000 45 over 400,000 93 50,001–100,000 59 100,001–250,000 71 250,001–500,000 81 500,001–1,000,000 93 over 1,000,000 105
Background and parties The table below lists the results of the 2016 local elections in the rural districts and the urban districts. Name Ideology 2016 result Votes (%) Seats CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christian democracy 28.9% SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany Social democracy 28.5% AfD Alternative for Germany Right-wing populism 11.9% Grüne Alliance 90/The Greens Green politics 11.3% WG Voter Groups Localism 7.4% FDP Free Democratic Party Classical liberalism 6.4% Linke The Left Democratic socialism 3.5% Others – 2.1%
Results Party Votes % Swing Seats +/- Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) 658,826 28.5 0.4 545 9 Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 555,528 24.0 4.5 475 79 Alliance 90/The Greens (GRÜNE) 426,331 18.4 7.1 343 126 Alternative for Germany (AfD) 160,246 6.9 5.0 132 91 Free Democratic Party (FDP) 155,240 6.7 0.3 123 3 Voter Groups (WG) 136,236 5.9 1.5 115 27 The Left (LINKE) 92,613 4.0 0.5 77 9 Free Voters (FW) 76,633 3.3 2.7 67 51 Die PARTEI 21,935 0.9 0.8 19 18 Volt Germany (Volt) 18,903 0.8 New 18 New Pirate Party Germany (Piraten) 4,499 0.2 0.5 4 9 Alliance for Innovation and Justice (BIG) 2,421 0.1 New 3 New National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) 1,797 0.1 0.2 2 3 Alliance C – Christians for Germany (Bündnis C) 746 0.0 New 3 New Others 1,794 0.1 0.1 0 7 Total 2,313,748 100.0 1,920 Blank/invalid votes 96,004 4.0 Registered voters/turnout 4,773,570 50.4 2.5 Source: Statistics Hesse
Results in independent cities City CDU SPD Grüne AfD FDP Linke FW PARTEI Volt WG Others Frankfurt am Main 21.9 17.0 24.6 4.5 7.6 7.9 0.8 1.8 3.7 6.5 3.7 Wiesbaden 23.5 20.3 21.4 6.5 10.4 6.2 2.5 0.8 3.8 3.5 1.1 Kassel 19.2 24.6 28.7 5.6 5.6 11.2 2.3 1.0 – 1.9 – Darmstadt 15.6 16.7 27.4 4.6 5.6 7.4 1.9 2.1 6.9 11.8 – Offenbach am Main 18.1 28.4 18.1 7.3 6.2 8.5 4.2 1.6 – 4.0 3.5
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