Saxony

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This article is about the federal state of Germany named Saxony. For former historical states with the same name, see Saxony (disambiguation).

Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen) is a federal state of Germany. Its capital is Dresden, while the largest city in Saxony is Leipzig. Saxony has an area of 18,417.16 km²[1] and a population of 4.236 millions[2].

Geography

Saxony lies in the eastern part of Germany. Its neighbors are the federal states Thuringia in the west, Saxony-Anhalt in the north west and Brandenburg in the north. Poland and the Czech Republic bound Saxony in the east respectively in the south.

The largest rivers in Saxony are Elbe, Spree, Neiße and Mulde. All four rivers cross Saxony from south to north. The Neiße is Germany's and thus Saxony's border to Poland. The Ore Mountains lie on its southern border to the Czech Republic and are the largest mountain range in the state.

Government

Due to the constitution of Saxony (1992-05-27) the legislative power is with the Landtag, a kind of local parliament. The Landtag consists of 120 members of parliament. They are elected for five years. The executive consists of the Ministerpräsident (English: minister president) who is elected by the Landtag and a cabinet of ministers. The ministers are appointed by the Ministerpräsident.

Currently, Saxony is governed by a cabinet consisting of ministers from CDU and SPD. The cabinet is led by Ministerpräsident Georg Milbradt (CDU).

The last election for the Landtag in 2004 yielded the following result:

Party First Vote (%) Seats[3]
CDU 41.1 55
PDS 23.6 31
SPD 9.8 13
NPD 9.2 12
FDP 5.9 7
Grüne 5.1 6

References

  1. http://www.statistik-portal.de/Statistik-Portal/en/en_jb01_jahrtab1.asp
  2. 2007-05-01, http://www.statistik-portal.de/Statistik-Portal/en/en_zs01_sax.asp
  3. Since 2004 there are 124 members of parliament. Normally the Lantag consists only of 120 members.