2022 Saarland state election

2022 Saarland state election

← 2017 27 March 2022 2027 →
All 51 seats in the Landtag of Saarland 26 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	458,223 (61.4% 8.3pp)
First party Second party Third party   AfD Candidate Anke Rehlinger Tobias Hans None[a] Party SPD CDU AfD Last election 17 seats, 29.6% 24 seats, 40.7% 3 seats, 6.2% Seats won 29 19 3 Seat change 12 5 0 Popular vote 196,801 129,154 25,719 Percentage 43.5% 28.5% 5.7% Swing 13.9pp 12.2pp 0.5pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Candidate Lisa Becker Angelika Hießerich-Peter Barbara Spaniol Party Greens FDP Left Last election 0 seats, 4.0% 0 seats, 3.3% 7 seats, 12.8% Seats won 0 0 0 Seat change 7 Popular vote 22,598 21,618 11,689 Percentage 4.995% 4.8% 2.6% Swing 1.0pp 1.5pp 10.3pp
Results of the election
Government before election Hans cabinet CDU–SPD Government after election Rehlinger cabinet SPD

The 2022 Saarland state election was held on 27 March 2022 to elect the 17th Landtag of Saarland. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Minister-President Tobias Hans.

The election was won by the SPD in a historic landslide, capturing a majority in the Landtag and winning at least a plurality in all municipalities of Saarland, largely attributed to the personal popularity of longtime Deputy Minister-President Anke Rehlinger. This election was the first time since the 2017 North Rhine-Westphalia state election that an incumbent Minister-President was defeated for re-election, with the largest margin of defeat since the 2011 Hamburg state election, the first time since the 2013 Bavarian state election that a party received an absolute majority in a Landtag,^[1] as well as the first time since 1994 that the SPD did so in the Saarland.

Overall, the SPD won 43.5% of votes to the CDU's 28.5%, a swing of fifteen percentage points between them. The Left lost all their seats after suffering a decline of ten points. The Alternative for Germany became the only minor party in the Landtag with just under 6%, while The Greens fell just 23 votes short of the 5% electoral threshold to win seats. The Free Democratic Party also failed to enter the Landtag with 4.8%. A total of 22.3% of votes did not translate into seats due to the electoral threshold, a record high in any state election.^[2]

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