 In July, Minister-President Carstensen and the CDU stated that the controversial bonus payments made to the CEO of the Hamburg Commercial Bank had been approved by the SPD, which the SPD denied.On 15 July, the CDU announced it would end the coalition with the SPD and request the dissolution of the Landtag.The SPD unanimously rejected this in the Landtag in 20 July, causing the vote to fail.