2026 Rhineland-Palatinate state election explained

The 2026 Rhineland-Palatinate state election will be held in 2026 to elect the 19th Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Background

In the 2021 state elections, the SPD, led by Prime Minister Malu Dreyer, was the strongest with 35.7 percent. The CDU achieved its poor result in Rhineland-Palatinate with 27.7 percent. The Greens were again the third strongest force with gains of 9.3 percent.[1]

The AfD became the fourth strongest force in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament with losses of 8.3 percent. The FDP reached 5.5 percent. The Free Voters made it into the state parliament for the first time with 5.4 percent.[2]

Even before the election, all three parties in the traffic light coalition had campaigned for it to continue. The balance of power within the alliance changed, since the Greens were now the second strongest party instead of the FDP.

The SPD invited the Greens and FDP to exploratory talks the day after the election. Almost eight weeks after the election, the SPD, Greens and FDP agreed to continue their previous coalition.

In the constituent session of the state parliament on May 18, 2021, Malu Dreyer was re-elected Prime Minister and the Third Dreyer cabinet was sworn in.[3]

Opinion polls

Party polling

Polling firmFieldwork dateSamplesizeSPDCDUGrüneAfDFDPFWLinkeBSWOthersLead
Infratest dimap15–20 Feb 20241,1572231101547479
Wahlkreisprognose2–11 Dec 20231,23726278.5203.57.51.561
Infratest dimapdata-sort-value="2023-10-30" 25–30 Oct 20231,048223112175589
Infratest dimapdata-sort-value="2023-07-18" 13–18 Jul 20231,156253111165666
INSAdata-sort-value="2023-05-15" 8–15 May 20231,0002827111465271
Infratest dimapdata-sort-value="2023-03-28" 27–28 Mar 20231,180282914125471
Wahlkreisprognosedata-sort-value="2023-03-21" 14–21 Mar 20231,0002925111656.525.54
Infratest dimapdata-sort-value="2022-12-13" 9–13 Dec 20221,166282915115471
INSAdata-sort-value="2022-11-14" 7–14 Nov 20221,000282813135526data-sort-value="0" Tie
Wahlkreisprognosedata-sort-value="2022-10-17" 14–17 Oct 20221,0232625.5101576.5280.5
Infratest dimapdata-sort-value="2022-09-27" 26–27 Sep 20221,18327271412848data-sort-value="0" Tie
Wahlkreisprognosedata-sort-value="2022-07-10" 2–10 Jul 20221,20934.526.5146.556.5258
Wahlkreisprognosedata-sort-value="2022-05-18" 11–18 May 20221,0423723.51358625.513.5
Wahlkreisprognosedata-sort-value="2022-03-28" 21–28 Mar 20221,002392476872715
Infratest dimap4–8 Mar 20221,15834261179588
Infratest dimap19–23 Nov 20211,1723421128116813
Wahlkreisprognosedata-sort-value="2021-11-09" 1–9 Nov 20211,10041209.587.581.54.521
2021 federal electiondata-sort-value="2021-09-26" 26 Sep 202129.424.712.69.211.73.63.35.64.7
Infratest dimap2–7 Sep 20211,160402398653617
Infratest dimapdata-sort-value="2021-03-12" 9–13 Jul 20211,15338249866363
2021 state electiondata-sort-value="2021-03-14" 14 Mar 202135.727.79.38.35.55.42.55.78.0

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 15 March 2021 . Election in Rhineland-Palatinate: the success of the Dreyer traffic light . Der Spiegel.
  2. Web site: 15 March 2021 . Election in Rhineland-Palatinate: the success of the Dreyer traffic light . Der Spiegel.
  3. Web site: 18 May 2021 . Landtag re-elects Dreyer as Prime Minister . . de . 13 June 2022 . 19 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210519111422/https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/landtag-rp-konstituiert-sich-neu-100.html . dead .