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The politics ofRhineland-Palatinate takes place within a framework of afederalparliamentaryrepresentative democraticrepublic, where theFederal 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-rightChristian Democratic Union (CDU) and the center-leftSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Every five years, all Germans residing in the State over the age of 18 elect the members of theRhineland-Palatinate Landtag. This regionalparliament orlegislature then elects theminister-president and confirms the cabinet members. Rhineland-Palatinate is the only German Bundesland to have a cabinet minister forwinegrowing (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 - 2024Malu 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, following1947 election
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  2nd Landtag, following1951 election
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  3rd Landtag, following1955 election
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  4th Landtag, following1959 election
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  5th Landtag, following1963 election
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  6th Landtag, following1967 election
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  7th Landtag, following1971 election
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  8th Landtag, following1975 election
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  9th Landtag, following1979 election
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  10th Landtag, following1983 election
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  11th Landtag, following1987 election
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  12th Landtag, following1991 election
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  13th Landtag, following1996 election
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  14th Landtag, following2001 election
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  15th Landtag, following2006 election
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  16th Landtag, following2011 election
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  17th Landtag, following2016 election
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  18th Landtag, following2021 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

• Politics of Rhineland-Palatinate

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