Rhineland-Palatinate retains chairmanship of the Prime Minister's Conference

The chairmanship of the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK) will remain in Rhineland-Palatinate for another year. The heads of government of the federal states decided this unanimously, as the Rhineland-Palatinate State Chancellery announced. The chairmanship was actually supposed to be taken over by Saxony-Anhalt on October 1st. But that won't happen now.

After the AfD's election victory at the beginning of September, Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Sven Schulze (CDU) declared in a letter to the head of government of Rhineland-Palatinate and current chairman of the MPK, Gordon Schnieder (also CDU), that he wanted to forgo the rotating chairmanship of the state committee.

A “flawless technical and substantive preparation and implementation” of the MPK chairmanship is not guaranteed given the election outcome and the uncertainty of the formation of a government, wrote Schulze.

Schleswig-Holstein will take over in October 2027

Schnieder said that after Schulze's letter, they had coordinated closely with the states about how to proceed. Rhineland-Palatinate has the necessary structures through its current presidency and is therefore prepared to continue the presidency for another year.

The further order of the chair countries remains unaffected. This means that Schleswig-Holstein will take over the presidency in October 2027 as originally planned. The state parliament will be re-elected there in April next year.

Clear criticism from the AfD

The AfD sharply criticized the approach. “The prime ministers are using undemocratic means to combat their own loss of power,” explained AfD deputy federal chairman Stefan Möller. As a result of the decision, “AfD leading candidate Ulrich Siegmund will not chair the MPK as the future Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt.”

Möller criticized it as “dramatic” that “the prime ministers of the new federal states are also playing in this undemocratic game, i.e. they would rather sacrifice the MPK chairmanship of an East German federal state than help the AfD get its due.” Möller added: "The lessons of Saxony-Anhalt have obviously not yet been understood."

Coordination program of the states

The Prime Minister's Conference is an informal coordination body between the states and the federal government. Since October 2025, the chairmanship has been held by Rhineland-Palatinate. The change of government in Mainz from former Prime Minister Alexander Schweitzer (SPD) to the current incumbent Schnieder from the CDU also took place at this time.

The chairman of the MPK has great influence on setting topics, preparing them, conducting negotiations and communicating the topics to the public. He coordinates and moderates the meetings of the country leaders.

The chairman of the MPK has no right to intervene, nor can he overrule other countries. The resolutions have a primarily political effect and only become legally binding when the states implement them into their own rules. The MPK was often in the public spotlight, especially during the corona pandemic. At that time, the country heads made important decisions together with the Chancellery.