The 1991 Rhineland-Palatinate state election in Germany was held on 21 April 1991 to elect the members of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Carl-Ludwig Wagner was defeated, losing its majority. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) moved into first place, forming a coalition with the FDP. SPD leader Rudolf Scharping was subsequently elected as Minister-President.
This election marked several changes in the state history:
First, a change in the state election system. Previous elections were held purely proportionally, however, from that election on, the elections were held more in line with the federal mixed-member proportional representation, with both direct constituencies and proportional representation.
Secondly, from 1991 on, the Landtag became elected for five years instead of the previous four.
Thirdly, the election marked a shift in the state's political alignment: for 44 years (1947-1991) the state had been governed by CDU, with CDU coming first in every election.
The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Source:
|- | colspan=8 | |- ! colspan="2" | Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! Seats % |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Social Democratic Party (SPD) | align=right| 951,695 | align=right| 44.8 | align=right| 6.0 | align=right| 47 | align=right| 7 | align=right| 46.5 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | align=right| 822,449 | align=right| 38.7 | align=right| 6.4 | align=right| 40 | align=right| 8 | align=right| 39.6 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Free Democratic Party (FDP) | align=right| 146,400 | align=right| 6.9 | align=right| 0.4 | align=right| 7 | align=right| 0 | align=right| 6.9 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | align=right| 137,139 | align=right| 6.5 | align=right| 0.6 | align=right| 7 | align=right| 2 | align=right| 6.9 |- ! colspan=8| |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | The Republicans (REP) | align=right| 43,380 | align=right| 2.0 | align=right| 2.0 | align=right| 0 | align=right| ñ0 | align=right| 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left | Others | align=right| 24,244 | align=right| 1.1 | align=right| | align=right| 0 | align=right| ñ0 | align=right| 0 |- ! align=right colspan=2| Total ! align=right| 2,125,407 ! align=right| 100.0 ! align=right| ! align=right| 101 ! align=right| 1 ! align=right| |- ! align=right colspan=2| Voter turnout ! align=right| ! align=right| 73.9 ! align=right| 3.1 ! align=right| ! align=right| ! align=right|