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).

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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 - incumbent Malu Dreyer, SPD^[1]

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.

More information Party, Constituency ...

Party		Constituency			Party list				Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Swing	Seats
	Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)	618,176	32.2	28	690,962	35.7	0.5	11	39	0
	Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU)	604,088	31.4	23	535,318	27.7	4.1	8	31	4
	Alliance 90/The Greens (GRÜNE)	210,022	10.9	1	179,860	9.3	4.0	9	10	4
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	145,383	7.6	0	160,293	8.3	4.3	9	9	5
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	115,530	6.0	0	106,809	5.5	0.7	6	6	1
	Free Voters (FW)	143,940	7.5	0	103,619	5.4	3.2	6	6	6
	The Left (LINKE)	54,139	2.8	0	48,206	2.5	0.3	0	0	0
	Human Environment Animal Protection	–	–	–	32,527	1.7	New	0	0	New
	Die PARTEI	8,402	0.4	0	20,519	1.1	New	0	0	New
	Volt Germany	1,497	0.1	0	19,286	1.0	New	0	0	New
	Climate List RLP	9,477	0.5	0	13,681	0.7	New	0	0	New
	Ecological Democratic Party	8,198	0.4	0	13,406	0.7	0.3	0	0	0
	Pirate Party Germany	1,820	0.1	0	10,393	0.5	0.3	0	0	0
	Grassroots Democracy Party of Germany	229	0.0	0	–	–	–	–	0	New
	Independents	1,678	0.1	0	–	–	–	–	0	0
Total		1,922,579	100.0	52	1,934,879	100.0	–	49	101	0
Invalid/blank votes		34,770	1.8	–	22,470	1.1	–
Registered voters/turnout		3,042,414	64.3	–	3,042,414	64.3	6.1
Source: State Returning Officer

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