The 2017 North Rhine-Westphalia state election was held on 14 May 2017 to elect the members of the

Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia The Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia is the state parliament (''Landtag'') of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which convenes in the state capital of Düsseldorf, in the eastern part of the district of Hafen. The parliament ...

. The incumbent coalition government of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SPD) and

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

led by

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...

Hannelore Kraft Hannelore Kraft (''née'' Külzhammer; born 12 June 1961) is a German politician. She served as the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2010 until 2017. Kraft was the first woman to serve as head of government of this state and was ...

was defeated. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) became the largest party and formed a coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP). CDU leader

Armin Laschet Armin Laschet (; born 18 February 1961) is a German politician who served as Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 27 June 2017 to 26 October 2021. He served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 22 January 2021 to 3 ...

was subsequently elected Minister-President. This election was the last election in which an incumbent Minister-President was defeated until the

2022 Saarland state election The Next Saarland state election will be held on 27 March 2022 to elect the 17th Landtag of Saarland. The current government is coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Minister-President Tobias ...

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Opinion polling

Party polling

Minister-President polling

Results

The CDU became the largest party with 33% of the vote. The governing SPD and Greens suffered a 13-point swing between them, the latter losing half their seats. The FDP achieved their best ever result in the state at 12.6%, and AfD debuted at 7.4%. The Pirates collapsed to just 1% of the vote and were ousted from the Landtag. The Left doubled their vote share to 4.9%, but fell just short of the threshold.
< 2012 2022 > , - , colspan=7 align=center, Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia 2017

, - !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left colspan="2" rowspan="2" width=400 , Party !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center colspan="3" , Popular vote !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center colspan="3" , Seats , - !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=60, Votes !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=40, % !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=50, +/– !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=30, Seats !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=30, +/– , - ,
''Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands'' – CDU , 2,796,683 , 33.0 , 6.7 , 72 , 5 , - ,
''Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands'' – SPD , 2,649,205 , 31.2 , 7.9 , 69 , 30 , - ,
''Freie Demokratische Partei'' – FDP , 1,065,307 , 12.6 , 4.0 , 28 , 6 , - ,
''Alternative für Deutschland'' – AfD , 626,756 , 7.4 , 7.4 , 16 , 16 , - ,
''Bündnis 90/Die Grünen'' , 539,062 , 6.4 , 4.9 , 14 , 15 , - ,
''Die Linke'' , 415,936 , 4.9 , 2.4 , – , – , - ,
''Piratenpartei Deutschland'' , 80,780 , 1.0 , 6.8 , – , 20 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , align="right" colspan="2" , Valid votes , 8,487,373 , 99.0 , , colspan=2 rowspan=2 bgcolor=#BAB8B9 , , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , align="right" colspan="2" , Invalid votes , 89,808 , 1.0 , , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , align="right" colspan="2" , Totals and voter turnout , 8,577,221 , 65.2 , 5.6 , 199 , 38 , - style="background-color:#BAB9B9" , colspan="2" , Electorate , 13,164,887 , 100.00 , — , colspan=2, , - , colspan=11 align=left , Source
Die Landeswahlleiterin des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen

References

{{2017 elections in Germany 2017 elections in Germany

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

May 2017 events in Germany