28 May 2011 18 June 2016 19 seats, 35.2% 17 seats, 30.6% 19 18 Date 26 March 2017 | 18 June 2016 9 August 2008 17 seats, 30.6% 9 seats, 16.1% 18 8 | |
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State elections were held in Saarland on 26 March 2017. At stake will be the 51 seats in the Landtag of Saarland. The incumbent Minister-President Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, currently leading a grand coalition of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), will seek re-election after serving two terms as Minister-President.
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Background
The 2012 state election was a snap election called due to the collapse of the Jamaica coalition of CDU, Free Democrats (FDP) and the Green Party on 6 January 2012. The result of the election was a victory for the governing Christian Democrats, while the FDP suffered enormous losses. The party thus failed to achieve parliamentary representation. The Greens lost voters, but obtained seats by getting enough votes to reach the 5 percent threshold. The opposition Social Democrats led by Heiko Maas increased their number of seats and votes, but failed to become the largest party in parliament. The Left Party suffered moderate losses. The Pirate Party secured parliamentary representation for the first time in a Western German regional parliament.