The 2006 Rhineland-Palatinate state election was held on 26 March 2006 to elect the members of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. The incumbent coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Kurt Beck retained its majority. However, as the SPD won an outright majority, the FDP chose not to continue the coalition. Beck was subsequently re-elected as Minister-President.

Campaign and issues

The election was one of the first held under the grand coalition federal government. Thus, the SPD and CDU did not attack each other as harshly as previously. The SPD was expected to benefit from the personality of Kurt Beck, while the CDU ran again with their leader Christoph Böhr, who had already lost the 2001 election.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Opinion polling

Election result

! colspan="2" | Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! Seats % ! colspan=8| ! align=right colspan=2| Total ! align=right| 1,753,110 ! align=right| 100.0 ! align=right| ! align=right| 101 ! align=right| ±0 ! align=right| ! align=right colspan=2| Voter turnout ! align=right| ! align=right| 58.2 ! align=right| 4.0 ! align=right| ! align=right| ! align=right|

Sources