History

The Danish minority in Schleswig-Holstein - a remainder from the time before 1864, when Schleswig-Holstein belonged to Denmark - has its own political party, the South Schleswig Voters' Committee (Südschleswigscher Wählerverband, SSW). The SSW also takes care of the political affairs of the national Friesians, who live in the area North-Friesia at the North Sea coast of the state.

The German electoral laws provide that parties of the Danish minority are exempt from the minimum of 5 % of the votes, which is usually necessesary to enter German parliaments at state and federal level. But there is still a minimum amount of votes which the SSW must achieve: The party needs at least as many votes as the last (and "cheapest") seat in parliament will "cost" according to the allocation mechanism of the proportional representation system. Usually the Landtag has 69 seats, which means that the SSW usually needs some 20.000 votes to get a seat if there is an average voter turnout.

The SSW has been represented in the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag since 1947 - with a short break from 1954-58.

From the beginning of the 1980s the amount of SSW-votes at Landtag-elections was steadily increased. At the election in 1996 the SSW got 38.000 votes, which meant that the party for the first time since the 1960s achieved two seats in the Landtag. The poll in february 2000 continued the series of good election results: 60.367 votes and 4,1 %, the best outcome since 1950. 

The SSW has not nominated candidates for federal German elections since 1965.