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)
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.
| Election year | Total seats | Seats won | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | SPD | FDP | Grüne | AfD | Other | |||
| 1947 | 101 | 48 | 34 | 11 | 8 | |||
| 1951 | 100 | 43 | 38 | 19 | ||||
| 1955 | 100 | 51 | 36 | 13 | ||||
| 1959 | 100 | 52 | 37 | 10 | 1 | |||
| 1963 | 100 | 46 | 43 | 11 | ||||
| 1967 | 100 | 49 | 39 | 8 | 4 | |||
| 1971 | 100 | 53 | 44 | 3 | ||||
| 1975 | 100 | 55 | 40 | 5 | ||||
| 1979 | 100 | 51 | 43 | 6 | ||||
| 1983 | 100 | 57 | 43 | |||||
| 1987 | 100 | 48 | 40 | 7 | 5 | |||
| 1991 | 101 | 40 | 47 | 7 | 7 | |||
| 1996 | 101 | 41 | 43 | 10 | 7 | |||
| 2001 | 101 | 38 | 49 | 8 | 6 | |||
| 2006 | 101 | 38 | 53 | 10 | ||||
| 2011 | 101 | 41 | 42 | 18 | ||||
| 2016 | 101 | 35 | 39 | 7 | 6 | 14 | ||
| 2021 | 101 | 31 | 39 | 6 | 10 | 9 | 6 | |
| No | Constituency | Member[2] | 2021 | Voters | 2017 | 2013 | 2009 | 2005 | 2002 | 1998 | 1994 | 1990 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 196 | Neuwied | Erwin Rüddel | bgcolor= | 238,118 | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | SPD | CDU | |||||||||||
| 197 | Ahrweiler | Mechthild Heil | bgcolor= | 195,109 | CDU | ||||||||||||||||
| 198 | Koblenz | Josef Oster | bgcolor= | 193,035 | CDU | ||||||||||||||||
| 199 | Mosel/Rhein-Hunsrück | Marlon Bröhr | bgcolor= | 171,012 | bgcolor= | bgcolor= | bgcolor= | CDU | |||||||||||||
| 200 | Kreuznach | Joe Weingarten | bgcolor= | SPD | 182,380 | CDU | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | SPD | ||||||||
| 201 | Bitburg | Patrick Schnieder | bgcolor= | 163,493 | bgcolor= | bgcolor= | bgcolor= | CDU | |||||||||||||
| 202 | Trier | Verena Hubertz | bgcolor= | SPD | 190,530 | bgcolor= | SPD | SPD | CDU | ||||||||||||
| 203 | Montabaur | Tanja Machalet | bgcolor= | SPD | 210,816 | SPD | CDU | ||||||||||||||
| 204 | Mainz | Daniel Baldy | bgcolor= | SPD | 249,630 | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | SPD | CDU | ||||||||||
| 205 | Worms | Jan Metzler | bgcolor= | 212,943 | CDU | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | SPD | |||||
| 206 | Ludwigshafen/Frankenthal | Christian Schreider | bgcolor= | SPD | 210,969 | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | SPD | CDU | ||||||||||
| 207 | Neustadt – Speyer | Johannes Steiniger | bgcolor= | 219,416 | CDU | ||||||||||||||||
| 208 | Kaiserslautern | Matthias Mieves | bgcolor= | SPD | 224,701 | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | bgcolor= | SPD | SPD | |
| 209 | Pirmasens | Angelika Glöckner | bgcolor= | SPD | 174,093 | SPD | CDU | ||||||||||||||
| 210 | Südpfalz | Thomas Hitschler | SPD | 217,000 | CDU | ||||||||||||||||