The 2016 Rhineland-Palatinate state election to elect the members of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate was held on 13 March 2016, the same day as the Baden-Württemberg state election and Saxony-Anhalt state election. The incumbent coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Greens led by Minister-President Malu Dreyer was defeated due to severe losses by the Greens, dropping to 5th largest party and nearly losing representation. Anyway, the SPD (political color: red) and Greens carried on as a "traffic light coalition" with support from the Free Democratic Party (FDP, political color: yellow). Dreyer was subsequently re-elected as Minister-President.
Following the 2015 European migrant crisis, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) debuted as third largest party, but at 12.6% not as strong as in the other two state elections.
The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate.
<br/>< 2011 2021 > |- |colspan=7| |- !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|+/â !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=30|Seats !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=30|+/â |-
| <br/><small>Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands â SPD</small>|| 771,848 || 36.2 || 0.5 || 39 || 3 |- | <br/><small>Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands â CDU</small>|| 677,507 || 31.8 || 3.4 || 35 || 6 |- | <br/><small>Alternative für Deutschland â AfD</small>|| 268,628 || 12.6 || 12.6 || 14 || 14 |- | <br/><small>Freie Demokratische Partei â FDP</small>|| 132,294 || 6.2 || 2.0 || 7 || 7 |- | <br/><small>Bündnis 90/Die Grünen</small>|| 113,261 || 5.3 || 10.1 || 6 || 12 |- | <br/><small>Die Linke</small>|| 59,970 || 2.8 || 0.2 || â || â |- | || align=left | Free Voters Rhineland-Palatinate<br/><small>Freie Wähler</small>|| 47,924 || 2.2 || 0.1 || â || â |- | <br/><small>Piratenpartei</small>|| 16,708 || 0.8 || 0.8 || â || â |- | <br/><small>Allianz für Fortschritt und Aufbruch â ALFA</small>|| 13,154 || 0.6 || 0.6 || â || â |- | <br/><small>Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands â NPD</small>|| 10,565 || 0.5 || 0.6 || â || â |- | <br/><small>ÃÂkologisch-Demokratische Partei â ÃÂDP</small>|| 8,623 || 0.4 || || â || â |- | <br/><small>Die Republikaner â REP</small>|| 5,090 || 0.2 || || â || â |- | || align=left | <br/><small>Die Einheit</small>|| 3,105 || 0.1 || 0.1 || â || â |- | || align=left | The Third Way<br/><small>Der III. Weg</small>|| 1,944 || 0.1 || 0.1 || â || â |- | bgcolor="white"| || align=left |Other parties|| â || â || â || â || â |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | align="right" colspan="2" | Valid votes | 2,130,621 | 98.6 | 0.7 | colspan=2 rowspan=2 color=#BAB9B9| |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | align="right" colspan="2" | Invalid votes | 30,885 | 1.4 | 0.7 |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | align="right" colspan="2" | Totals and voter turnout | 2,161,506 | 70.4 | 8.6 | 101 | â |- style="background-color:#BAB9B9" | colspan="2" | Electorate | 3,071,972 | 100.0 | â | colspan=2| |- | colspan=11 align=left | Source: Landeswahlleiter