Politics of Rhineland-Palatinate

The politics of Rhineland-Palatinate takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Federal Government of Germany exercises sovereign rights with certain powers reserved to the states of Germany including Rhineland-Palatinate. The state has a multi-party system where the two main parties are the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the center-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Every five years, all Germans residing in the State over the age of 18 elect the members of the Rhineland-Palatinate Landtag. This regional parliament or legislature then elects the Minister-President and confirms the cabinet members. Rhineland-Palatinate is the only German Bundesland to have a cabinet minister for winegrowing (ministry of economy, traffic, agriculture and winegrowing)

List of Minister-presidents of Rhineland-Palatinate

Latest election

In the election, the SPD suffered large loss, falling by 10% of the vote and winning only one seat more than the Christian Democratic Union. The main winners were Alliance '90/The Greens, who surged to over 15% of the vote, having failed to even break through the 5% threshold in 2006. In 2011, however, the Free Democratic Party failed to break through 5%, and thus lost the 10 seats they'd won in 2006.

Summary of the 27 March 2011 election results for the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate

 
Party Vote % (change) Seats (change) Seat %
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 35.7% –9.9 42 –11 41.6%
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 35.2% +2.4 41 +3 40.6%
Alliance '90/The Greens (Die Grünen) 15.4% +10.8 18 +18 17.8%
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 4.2% –3.8 0 –10
The Left Party (Linke, formerly WASG) 3.0% +0.4 0 ±0
Free Voters 2.3% +0.7 0 ±0
Pirate Party Germany 1.6% +1.6 0 N/A
National Democratic Party of Germany 1.1% –0.1 0 ±0
Others 3.1% +1.2 0
Total 101
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