1987 Hessian state election

The 1987 Hessian state election was held on 5 April 1987 to elect the 12th Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Greens led by outgoing Minister-President Holger Börner, who retired at the election. The SPD campaign was led by finance minister Hans Krollmann, who ran to succeed him.

The government was defeated, with gains for the Greens offset by a significant swing against the SPD. The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) became the largest party with 42% of votes and formed a coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP), ending 40 years of SPD rule in the state. CDU leader Walter Wallmann was elected Minister-President by the Landtag.

Electoral system
The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation. 55 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and 55 then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.

Background
The previous election, held on 25 September 1983, was a snap election called after the Landtag elected in 1982 failed to form a government. The result was a strong victory for the SPD, who overtook the CDU as the largest party. The FDP also returned to the Landtag after losing their seats for the first time. The Greens, whose position as kingmaker caused the deadlock and fresh elections, retained their seats. Though the arithmetic was no better than in 1982, the SPD this time agreed to form a minority government with external support from the Greens. Holger Börner took office in June 1984. In October the following year, the SPD and Greens agreed to form a coalition government, marking the first involvement of the Greens in government in Germany. The coalition collapsed a little less than eighteen months later in February 1987 due to disputes over nuclear energy, leading to the election being called ahead of schedule in April.

Parties
The table below lists parties represented in the 11th Landtag of Hesse.