Politics of Rhineland-Palatinate

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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)

• June 13, 1947 - July 9, 1947: Wilhelm Boden, CDU
• 1947 - 1969: Peter Altmeier, CDU
• 1969 - 1976: Helmut Kohl, CDU
• 1976 - 1988: Bernhard Vogel, CDU
• 1988 - 1991: Carl-Ludwig Wagner, CDU
• 1991 - 1994: Rudolf Scharping, SPD
• 1994 - 2013: Kurt Beck, SPD
• 2013 - 2024 Malu Dreyer, SPD^[1]
• 2024 - incumbent: Alexander Schweitzer, SPD

After the 2021 elections, the governing coalition of the SPD, FDP and the Greens (Grüne) was renewed and reelected Malu Dreyer as minister-president.^[2] Since then, a new minister-president, Alexander Schweitzer, was elected by the Landtag and began serving in 2024.

A darkened box under a party in any given year denotes that the party had either not yet been founded, or the party had become defunct, by the date of that election.

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  1st Landtag, following 1947 election
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  2nd Landtag, following 1951 election
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  3rd Landtag, following 1955 election
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  4th Landtag, following 1959 election
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  5th Landtag, following 1963 election
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  6th Landtag, following 1967 election
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  7th Landtag, following 1971 election
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  8th Landtag, following 1975 election
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  9th Landtag, following 1979 election
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  10th Landtag, following 1983 election
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  11th Landtag, following 1987 election
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  12th Landtag, following 1991 election
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  13th Landtag, following 1996 election
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  14th Landtag, following 2001 election
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  15th Landtag, following 2006 election
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  16th Landtag, following 2011 election
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  17th Landtag, following 2016 election
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  18th Landtag, following 2021 election

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  1991 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Red is SPD, Black is CDU
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  1996 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Red is SPD, Black is CDU
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  2001 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Red is SPD, Black is CDU
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  2006 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Red is SPD, Black is CDU
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  2011 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Red is SPD, Black is CDU
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  2016 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Red is SPD, Black is CDU
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  2021 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Red is SPD, Black is CDU