South Schleswig Voters' Association
South Schleswig Voters' Association German: Südschleswigscher Wählerverband Danish: Sydslesvigsk Vælgerforening North Frisian: Söödschlaswiksche Wäälerferbånd | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | SSW |
| Chairman | Christian Dirschauer |
| Vice Chairmen | Sybilla Lena Nitsch, Svend Wippich |
| National Secretary | Martin Lorenzen |
| Founded | 30 June 1948 |
| Split from | South Schleswig Association |
| Headquarters | Norderstraße 76 24939 Flensburg |
| Newspaper | Stimme des Nordens |
| Youth wing | Youth in the SSW |
| Membership (2020) | 3,216 |
| Ideology | |
| European affiliation | European Free Alliance |
| Colours | Blue Yellow |
| Bundestag (Schleswig-Holstein seats) | 1 / 25 |
| Bundesrat | 0 / 69 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 96 |
| Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein | 4 / 69 |
| Kiel City Council | 4 / 49 |
| Flensburg City Council | 11 / 43 |
| Election symbol | |
| Party flag | |
| Website | |
| ssw.de | |
The South Schleswig Voters' Association (German: Südschleswigscher Wählerverband, SSW; Danish: Sydslesvigsk Vælgerforening, SSV) is a regionalist political party in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. The party represents the Danish and Frisian minorities of the state.
As a party representing a national minority, the SSW declines to identify itself with a scale of left–right politics but models its policies on the Nordic model, which often means favouring a strong welfare state, while favouring a more free-market labour policy than the German social market economy model. In 2011 it was defined as socially liberal by multiple authors. The SSW is represented in the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein and several regional and municipal councils. The party contested federal elections in Germany until 1961, before returning in 2021, where it obtained one seat, and in 2025, where it once again obtained a seat in the Bundestag.
As a party for the national Danish minority in Southern Schleswig, the SSW is not subject to the general requirement of passing a 5% vote threshold to gain proportional seats in either the state parliament (Landtag) or the federal German parliament (Bundestag). However, the party is not guaranteed representation and must still win enough votes to qualify for the last seat, which in the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag is 1/69≈1.45% and in the Bundestag (Schleswig-Holstein seats) 1/25≈4%. In the most recent 2022 state election, the SSW received 5.7% of the votes and four seats. In the 2021 federal elections, the SSW stood in a federal election for the first time since 1961; the official final result gave them one seat, making Stefan Seidler a Member of Parliament, their first such member since the 1953 federal elections.