it followed the vote in bavaria two weeks earlier. like in bavaria, the parties of chancellor angela merkel's federal government coalition − cdu and spd − lost more than 20 percentage points combined (cdu -11.3%, spd -10.9%), while the hessian cdu's coalition partner the greens and the opposition party alternative for germany (afd) won the biggest increases in votes compared to the last election in 2013. the afd's gains (+9%) were slightly larger than those of the greens (+8.7%), making it the greatest net winner by additional votes and seats. smaller parties also made gains. turn-out decreased by 5.9 points to 67.3%.