The politics of Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

takes place within a framework of a federal

Federal republic

A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. A federation is the central government. The states in a federation also maintain the federation...

 parliamentary representative democratic republic

Republic

A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...

, 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 rightist Christian Democratic Union

Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

 (CDU) and the leftist Social Democratic Party of Germany

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 (SPD).

Every five years, all Germans residing in the State over the age of 18 elect the members of the Rhineland-Palatinate Landtag

Rhineland-Palatinate Landtag

The Rhineland-Palatinate Landtag is the state diet of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate.Article 79, Section 1 of the Rhineland-Palatinate constitution provides: "The Landtag is the supreme organ of political decision-making, elected by the people...

. This regional parliament

Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

 or legislature

Legislature

A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

 then elects the Minister-President

Minister-President

A minister-president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments, in which a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government prevails, who presides over the council of ministers...

 and confirms the cabinet members. Rhineland-Palatinate is the only German Bundesland to have a cabinet minister for wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

growing (ministry of economy, traffic, agriculture and winegrowing)

List of Minister-presidents of Rhineland-Palatinate

• June 13, 1947 - July 9, 1947: Wilhelm Boden, CDU
• 1947 - 1969: Peter Altmeier
  Peter Altmeier
  Peter Altmeier was a German politician . From 1947 to 1969 he was the Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate. He was born in Saarbrücken and died in Koblenz. He was the longest governing German Ministers-Presidents in one single state - longest at all was Bernhard Vogel.- External links :* * *...
  
  , CDU
• 1969 - 1976: Helmut Kohl
  Helmut Kohl
  Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
  
  , CDU
• 1976 - 1988: Bernhard Vogel, CDU
• 1988 - 1991: Carl-Ludwig Wagner
  Carl-Ludwig Wagner
  Carl-Ludwig Wagner is a German politician of the . Today he lives in Eitelsbach, a part of Trier.He was Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1988 to 1991, Minster from 1979 to 1988 , a member of the Bundestag and worked for the European Parliament in Luxembourg from 1959 to 1969.After...
  
  , CDU
• 1991 - 1994: Rudolf Scharping
  Rudolf Scharping
  Rudolf Scharping is a German politician .Scharping studied politics, sociology and law at the University of Bonn. He joined the Social Democratic Party in 1966. He was Member of the Rhineland-Palatine Parliament from 1975 to 1994. From 21 May 1991 to 15 October 1994 he was prime minister of the...
  
  , SPD
  Social Democratic Party of Germany
  The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
  
  
• since 1994: Kurt Beck
  Kurt Beck
  Kurt Beck is a German politician , serving as the Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate since 1994 and as President of the Bundesrat in 2000/01. On May 14, 2006, he succeeded Matthias Platzeck as Chairman of the German Social Democratic Party...
  
  , SPD
  Social Democratic Party of Germany
  The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
  
  

See also: List of Rhineland-Palatinate Cabinet Members.

Latest election

Kurt Beck

Kurt Beck

Kurt Beck is a German politician , serving as the Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate since 1994 and as President of the Bundesrat in 2000/01. On May 14, 2006, he succeeded Matthias Platzeck as Chairman of the German Social Democratic Party...

 (SPD) remained Minister-President, winning an outright majority. Beck offered the FDP to continue the coalition ("red-yellow"). The FDP, however, declined and will be an opposition party. The Alliance '90/The Greens

Alliance '90/The Greens

Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

 lost their representation in the State Parliament

Landtag

A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...

.

Party	Party List votes	Vote percentage	Total Seats	Seat percentage
Social Democratic Party Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...  (SPD)	750,390	45.2%	53	52.5%
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	668,610	32.8%	38	37.6%
Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party (Germany) The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...  (FDP)	134,709	8.0%	10	9.9%
Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...	86,255	4.98%	0	0.0%
Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice (WASG)	47,352	2.7%	0	0.0%
All Others	45,010	2.6%	0	0.0%
Totals	1,732,326	100.0%	101	100.0%