Combining elections

The legislators in the Länder are solely responsible for combining elections to Länder parliaments with a parliamentary election at federal level (Bundestag or European elections). It is their responsibility to check whether the principles of formal equality and equal opportunities of the competing nominating bodies may be impaired by the fact that different elections are held at the same time. In state practice, an act or ordinance of the Land minister of the interior to combine elections or a decree forms the basis for holding an election at Land level together with an election to the Bundestag or the European Parliament.

Bundestag elections

Up to and including the 2021 Bundestag Election, there were only twelve instances in which elections to Länder parliaments were held together with Bundestag elections.

Bundestag election	At the same time: election to the Land parliament of
6 March 1983	Rheinland-Pfalz
2 December 1990	Berlin
16 October 1994	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Saarland Thüringen
27 September 1998	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
22 September 2002	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
27 September 2009	Brandenburg Schleswig-Holstein
22 September 2013	Hessen
26 September 2021	Berlin Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

European Parliament elections

Up to and including the 2019 European Election, there were only two instances in which an election to a Land parliament took place at the same time as a European election:

European election	At the same time: election to the Land parliament of
13 June 2004	Thüringen
26 May 2019	Bremen (Bürgerschaft)

Last update: 13 February 2023