Post-election
After the election, the SPD-Green coalition no longer commanded a majority of the Landtag. The SSW announced that although it would not enter a coalition, it saw more common ground with the SPD than the CDU. Premier Heide Simonis proceeded to form an SPD-Green coalition based on an agreement with the SSW backing it.
On March 17, 2005, Simonis failed to win a Landtag vote for the premiership, with the secret ballot tying 34-34. It is not known who the abstainer was, though it is widely believed to have been a representative of her own party. Since the SPD-Green coalition had fallen with her leadership, the SPD was forced to negotiate a grand coalition with the CDU, acceding to the CDU's demand that CDU leader Peter Harry Carstensen replace Simonis as Minister-president.
Read more about this topic: Schleswig-Holstein State Election, 2005