like the preceding bavarian election, the election in hesse was overshadowed by federal politics and the poor condition of the german coalition government after two government crises, the "asylum quarrel" in june/july and the crisis around hans-georg maaßen in september. as a consequence of the severe losses, the day after the election, chancellor angela merkel announced that that she will not seek re-election as party head at the party convention in hamburg in early december and as german chancellor in 2021.