The Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate is the state diet of the German 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. It represents the people, elects the Minister-President and confirms the cabinet, passes the laws and the budget, controls the executive and enunciates the popular will in the conduct of public affairs, in questions of European policy and according to the agreements between the Landtag and the cabinet."
The Landtag consists of 101 members.
The Landtag convenes in the Deutschhaus building, where also the first democratically elected parliament German history had convened, the Rhenish-German national convention of the Mainz Republic. Parts of its administration are located in the old arsenal.
The German flag used in the Landtag is a historical one used during the Hambacher Fest.
Electoral system The Landtag is elected via mixed-member proportional representation. 52 members are elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting. 49 members are then allocated using compensatory proportional representation, distributed in four multi-member districts. Voters have two votes: the "first vote" for candidates in single-member constituencies, and the "second vote" for party lists, which are used to fill the proportional seats. The minimum size of the Landtag is 101 members, but if overhang seats are present, proportional leveling seats will be added to ensure proportionality. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are excluded.
Composition After the elections of March 22, 2026, the composition of the Landtag is as followsFinal results of the 2026 state election: PartySeatsChristian Democratic Union (CDU) 39Social Democratic Party (SPD) 32Alliance '90/The Greens 10Alternative for Germany (AfD) 24 Political groups in bold support the state's coalition government. Since 2011 the Webster/Sainte-Laguë method is used for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation.Sainte-Laguë/Schepers at the pages of the Federal Returning Officer, retrieved 7 October 2017
The parliamentary groups are chaired by Alexander Schweitzer (SPD), Christoph Gensch (CDU), Michael Büge (AfD) and Katrin Eder (Greens).
Presidents of the Landtag 1947–1948 Jakob Diel, CDU 1948–1959 August Wolters, CDU 1959–1971 Otto van Volxem, CDU 1971–1974 Johannes Baptist Rösler, CDU 1974–1985 Albrecht Martin, CDU 1985–1991 Heinz Peter Volkert, CDU 1991–2006 Christoph Grimm, SPD 2006–2016 Joachim Mertes, SPD 2016–2026 Hendrik Hering, SPD since 2026 Matthias Lammert, CDU
See also List of Members of the Rhineland-Palatinate Landtag
References