The 2022 North Rhine-Westphalia state election was held on 15 May 2022 to elect the 18th

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 outgoing government was a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) 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 ...

Hendrik Wüst Hendrik Josef Wüst (born 19 July 1975) is a German politician currently serving as Minister-President of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. He is a member of the Christian democratic and liberal-conservative CDU. In October 2021 he succeeded ...

. The CDU remained the largest party with 36% of votes, a small increase from 2017, while the opposition

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) declined to 27%.

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 ...

almost tripled their vote share to 18%. The FDP fell sharply to 6%, and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) also slipped to 5%. Overall, the incumbent coalition lost its majority, though the opposition SPD and Greens also fell short of victory. Possible governing arrangements include CDU–Greens, as well as a

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition (german: Ampelkoalition) is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' tra ...

of the SPD, Greens, and FDP.

Election date

The Landtag is elected for five years, with its term commencing when the new Landtag first meets. Elections must take place in the last three months of the legislative period.

Electoral system

The Landtag is elected via mixed-member proportional representation. 128 members are elected in

single-member constituencies A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vot ...

via

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

. 53 members are then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. 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 remaining seats in a way that achieves proportionality overall. The minimum size of the Landtag is 181 members, but if

overhang seat Overhang seats are constituency seats won in an election under the traditional mixed member proportional (MMP) system (as it originated in Germany), when a party's share of the nationwide votes would entitle it to fewer seats than the number of ...

s are present, proportional leveling seats will be added to ensure proportionality. An

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.

Background

In the previous election held on 14 May 2017, the CDU became the largest party with 33.0% of votes cast, an increase of seven percentage points. The SPD lost eight points and placed second with 31.2% of votes. The FDP won 12.6% (+4.0pp), and the Greens fell to 6.4% (–4.9pp). The AfD contested its first election in North Rhine-Westphalia, winning 7.4%. Other parties were not able to enter parliament, The Left only closely missing the

of 5% winning 4.9% (+2.4pp). The SPD had led a coalition with the Greens since 2010, but this government lost its majority in the election. The CDU subsequently formed a coalition with the FDP, and Armin Laschet became Minister-President. After unsuccessfully leading the

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...

in the 2021 German federal election, Laschet resigned as Minister-President.

was elected by the Landtag as his successor on 27 October 2021.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 17th Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Opinion polling

Graphical summary

Party polling

Preliminary results

Analysis

The results of the election were widely interpreted in the German press as a rebuke of German chancellor Olaf Scholz's and the SPD's response to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

. In the initial days after the Russian invasion, Scholz promised greater military spending and aid to Ukraine but in the following months was seen as indecisive about exporting heavy weapons to Ukraine. Germany has also been less willing than other European nations to boycott Russian energy imports. North Rhine-Westphalia is located in the industrial heartland of Germany and has traditionally been the base of support for the SPD. The Greens largely benefited from the collapse in support for the SPD, as many of their policies on Ukraine are more popular with the German public. The FDP's result was interpreted as coming from their federal ministers enjoying far less popularity than those of the Greens, popular

Christian Lindner Christian Wolfgang Lindner (born 7 January 1979) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) serving as the Federal Minister of Finance since 8 December 2021. He has been the party leader of the liberal FDP since 2013 and a Mem ...

not running again and many 2017 FDP voters migrating to the CDU to prevent Kutschaty from becoming Minister-President.

Government formation

No party won a majority of seats in the election. The CDU won the largest number of seats but fell 22 seats short of a majority. If the CDU wish to govern, they could attempt to form an agreement with one or multiple parties in the Landtag that combine with their 76 seats to reach a majority of 98 seats or more. This could be achieved via a coalition government or a

confidence and supply In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house. A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of par ...

agreement, or alternatively the CDU could attempt to run a minority government alone.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:North Rhine-Westphalia state election, Next Elections in North Rhine-Westphalia Future elections in Germany 2022 elections in Germany