State election in Rhineland-Palatinate 1971
The state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1971 took place on March 21. The big election winner was the CDU , led by Prime Minister Helmut Kohl , which gained an absolute majority and from then on ruled alone. The FDP , which had co-ruled until then, had to go into opposition. The NPD failed at the five percent hurdle and was no longer represented in the state parliament. The SPD , which ran for the first time with Wilhelm Dröscher as the top candidate, just like the CDU emerged stronger from the election, but was unable to assert itself with its claim to replace the CDU.
Starting position
A coalition of CDU and FDP faced the SPD and NPD as opposition parties in parliament. Peter Altmeier was Prime Minister until 1969 , then Helmut Kohl .
Election result
State election on March 21, 1971
Eligible voters: 2,584,585
Voters: 2,052,908 (turnout: 79.43%)
Valid votes: 2,026,372
Invalid votes: 26,536 (1.29%)
| Political party | be right | Share in% |
Seats 1972 |
Seats in 1971 |
Seats 1967 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | 1,012,847 | 49.98 | 52 | 53 | 49 |
| SPD | 821.350 | 40.53 | 42 | 44 | 39 |
| FDP | 120,444 | 5.94 | 6th | 3 | 4th |
| NPD | 53,882 | 2.66 | 8th | ||
| DKP | 17,849 | 0.88 | |||
| Total | 2,026,372 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
The original distribution of seats was: CDU 53 seats, SPD 44 seats, FDP 3 seats. After a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of October 11, 1972, with which the state election law was partially declared unconstitutional, the FDP received three additional seats, while the SPD lost two seats and the CDU lost one seat.
→ List of members of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament (7th electoral term)
