1980 German Federal Election

5 October 1980 · The Bonn Republic · 497 seats, 249 for a majority

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of the SPD-FDP coalition wanted to be re-elected. The CDU/CSU candidate for Chancellor was CSU leader Franz Josef Strauß.

Chancellor before

Helmut Schmidt

SPD

Chancellor (continued)

Helmut Schmidt

SPD

Largest force

CDU/CSU

226 of 497 seats

Turnout

88.6%

The result

Sort by

CDU/CSU

Franz-Josef Strauss · 44.5% of votes · -17 seats

226

seats

SPD

Helmut Schmidt · 42.9% of votes · +4 seats

218

seats

FDP

Hans-Dietrich Genscher · 10.6% of votes · +14 seats

seats