Politics
Since 1948, politics in the state has been dominated by the rightist Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the leftist Social Democratic Party. Lower Saxony was one of the origins of the German environmentalist movement in reaction to the state government's support for underground nuclear waste disposal. This led to the formation of the German Green Party in 1980.
The former Minister-President, Christian Wulff, has led a coalition of his CDU with the Free Democratic Party between 2003 and 2010. In the most recent state election in 2008, the ruling CDU held on to its position as the leading party in the state, despite losing votes and seats. The CDU's coalition with the Free Democratic Party retained its majority although it was cut from 29 to 10.
The election also saw the entry into the state parliament for the first time of the leftist The Left party.
On 1 July 2010 David McAllister was elected Prime Minister.
Read more about this topic: Lower Saxony
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“All is politics in this capital.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)
“There is a place where we are always alone with our own mortality, where we must simply have something greater than ourselves to hold onto—God or history or politics or literature or a belief in the healing power of love, or even righteous anger.... A reason to believe, a way to take the world by the throat and insist that there is more to this life than we have ever imagined.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)