Politics of North Rhine-Westphalia

The Politics of North Rhine-Westphalia takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic. The two main parties are the Centre-right Christian Democratic Union and the Centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

History of politics in North Rhine-Westphalia

From 1966 to 2005, North Rhine-Westphalia was continuously governed by the Social Democrats or SPD-led governments. The 2005 state election granted the CDU an unexpected victory. Their top candidate Jürgen Rüttgers formed a coalition government with the FDP. With the result of the 2010 state elections, this government lost its majority in parliament. After many coalition talks, SPD and the Greens have agreed on a minority government.

Responsibility of the Landtag

The task of legislating is split between the Landtag and the Bundestag.^[1] The Bundestag is responsible for all matters which directly affect Germany as a whole. States can only participate in this area through the Bundesrat.^[1] The Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia is responsible for cultural matters, the education system, matters of internal security, i.e. the police, building supervision, health supervision and the media within North Rhine-Westphalia.^[1] The Landtag may enact laws as long as the Bundestag does not make use of its right to legislate.^[1]

Election system

North Rhine-Westphalia uses a Personalized proportional representation in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia.^[1] Every five years the citizens of North Rhine-Westphalia secretly vote in a general election to elect least 181 members of the Landtag.^[1] First-past-the-post voting determines 128 of the minimum 181 members of the Landtag. The remaining seats available to each party is determine by the party-list proportional representation.^[1] only parties who win at least 5% of the votes cast may be represented in parliament.^[1]

Legislation

The Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia, the parliamentary parties and groups consisting of at least 7 members of parliament have the right to table legal proposals to the Landtag for deliberation.^[1] In consultation with the Ältestenrat, the President of the Landtag places the draft bill on the plenary session's agenda.^[1] Firstly, the minister responsible, or one of the members who is filing the bill, introduces it to the plenary session and justifies the reasons for introducing it.^[1] During this First Reading, if the bill is politically sensitive, there is usually a fundamental debate about the law.^[1] Normally, the debate ends with the draft bill being referred to the overall control of the appropriate expert committee and, if necessary, being referred to other committees as well, which may also become involved in the advisory process.^[1]

This is when the detailed work begins for the experts in the individual parliamentary parties.^[1] External expert witnesses are often brought in to evaluate the legal proposals. They provide statements during what are known as "hearings" and make their contribution to the process of arriving at a decision which is right and proper.^[1] Preparations for the expert committees also take place in the parliamentary party working groups.^[1] The weekly parliamentary party meetings are a forum for exchanging information between committee members and other Members of Parliament.^[1]

The draft bill is examined down to the last detail in a small group, before appearing for a second time on the agenda of the plenary session, when it is debated afresh on the basis of the committee report.^[1] Every Member of Parliament now has another opportunity to table amendments.^[1] In this Second Reading, once members have decided which tabled amendments to accept, it is usual for the final vote concerning the law to take place.^[1]

Constitutional changes and budgetary laws are debated in three Readings.^[1] For other proposed legislation, a parliamentary party or a quarter of all members of parliament can apply for there to be a Third Reading and, if necessary, further committee consultations.^[1]

The law passed by the Landtag is delivered to the Minister-President, who, together with the ministers involved, is required to sign it and announce it in the Law and Ordinance Gazette.^[1] When the law comes into force is normally determined by the legislation itself, most usually the day after its announcement.^[1]

The executive branch

Like in every German state, and also on the Federal law, there is a system of parliamentary republic in NRW, which means that the Government - here: the Minister-President - is elected by the Legislature. The Minister-President then appoints the other members of the state government.

For a list of members of the incumbent state government, see Cabinet Kraft II. The current government is a coalition between the Social Democrats and the Greens.

Election results

Since the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, the ruling Ministers-President and the election results in the state have been:

Election results from 1947 to 2005

Year	SPD	CDU	FDP	Green	Other	Minister-President
1946						Rudolf Amelunxen (Centre Party)
1947	32.0%	37.5%	5.9%	–	24.6%	Karl Arnold (CDU)
1950	32.3%	36.9%	12.1%	–	18.7%	Karl Arnold (CDU)
1954	34.5%	41.3%	11.5%	–	12.7%	1954 - 1956 Karl Arnold (CDU) 1956 - 1958 Fritz Steinhoff (SPD)
1958	39.2%	50.5%	7.1%	–	3.2%	Franz Meyers (CDU)
1962	43.3%	46.4%	6.9%	–	3.4%	Franz Meyers (CDU)
1966	49.5%	42.8%	7.4%	–	0.3%	Heinz Kühn (SPD)
1970	46.1%	46.3%	5.5%	–	2.1%	Heinz Kühn (SPD)
1975	45.1%	47.1%	6.7%	–	1.1%	1975 - 1978: Heinz Kühn (SPD) 1978 - 1980: Johannes Rau (SPD)
1980	48.4%	43.2%	4.98%	3.0%	0.4%	Johannes Rau (SPD)
1985	52.1%	36.5%	6.0%	4.6%	0.8%	Johannes Rau (SPD)
1990	50.0%	36.7%	5.8%	5.0%	2.5%	Johannes Rau (SPD)
1995	46.0%	37.7%	4.0%	10.0%	2.3%	1995 - 1998: Johannes Rau (SPD) 1998 - 2000: Wolfgang Clement (SPD)
2000	42.8%	37.0%	9.8%	7.1%	3.3%	2000 - 2002: Wolfgang Clement (SPD) 2002 - 2005: Peer Steinbrück (SPD)
2005	37.1%	44.8%	6.2%	6.2%	5.7%	Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU)
2010	34.5%	34.6%	6.7%	12.1%	11.1%	Hannelore Kraft (SPD)
The votes for "others" include the Communist Party of Germany (1947 14.0%) and the Centre Party (1947 9.8%).[2]

2012 Election results

The results of the North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 2012 were as follows.

The incumbent coalition of SPD and the Greens, which up to then had been a minority government, gained the absolute majority. Also, for the first time, the Pirate Party gained seats.

 Summary of the 13 May 2012 Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia elections results
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Party		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands - SPD	3,050,160	39.1%	4.6%	99	32
	Christian Democratic Union Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands - CDU	2,050,633	26.3%	8.3%	67
	Alliance '90/The Greens Bündnis 90/Die Grünen	884,136	11.3%	0.8%	29	6
	Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei – FDP	669,971	8.6%	1.9%	22	9
	Pirate Party Germany Piratenpartei Deutschland	608,957	7.8%	6.2%	20	20
	Left Die Linke	194,239	2.5%	3.1%	0	11
	Other parties	335,730	4.4%	0.9%	0
Valid votes		7,794,126	98.6%
Invalid votes		107,796	1.4%
Totals and voter turnout		7,901,922	59.6%	0.3%	237	56
Electorate		13,264,231	100.00	—
Source: Die Landeswahlleiterin des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen

See also

• Politics of Germany

References

1. "The Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia". Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
2. Detlef Briesen u.a.: Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte Rheinlands und Westfalens. Köln, 1995. S.287, Landesamt für Statistik und Datenverarbeitung Nordrhein-Westfalen: Die Gemeinden Nordrhein-Westfalens 2005. Düsseldorf, 2005. (CD-Rom-Ausg.)