Dietmar Woidke was elected as Minister-President for a fourth consecutive time on December 11, 2024. At formation, his coalition was composed of
his own party and
BSW (a
red-purple coalition), which together had a narrow majority of two seats.
Red-purple coalition dissolution The shaky coalition entered a crisis on 11 November 2025, when BSW MdLs
Jouleen Gruhn (its Landtag vice-president), Melanie Matzes, André von Ossowski, and Reinhard Simon left the BSW in protest of most of their bloc voting against the government on amendments to the
State Treaty on Media, which regulates the country's public broadcasters. They remained as part of its parliamentary group and continued supporting the government. Matzies and Simon subsequently returned to the party. BSW leader and deputy Minister-President
Robert Crumbach voted for the proposed amendments, which passed with votes from the CDU. He then announced his intent to leave the party on 5 January 2026, calling the BSW unfit for the responsibility of governing. He requested to join the SPD parliamentary group, but stopped short of rejoining the party as a member. The BSW repeatedly rejected the SPD's demand for a public pledge of loyalty to the coalition agreement. The party additionally called for Crumbach's dismissal as finance minister and resignation from the Landtag. On 6 January 2026, Minister-President Woidke announced in a press conference he was ending the coalition with BSW and seeking negotiations with the CDU, who expressed willingness to cooperate. On the same day, Crumbach and Gruhn were accepted into the SPD parliamentary group as independents – which would give the proposed coalition the same two-seat majority – while von Ossowski left the BSW parliamentary group to sit as an independent. The two remaining BSW ministers – health minister Britta Müller and infrastructure minister Detlef Tabber – remained in office and also left the party on 8 January. Woidke and SPD general secretary
Kurt Fischer ruled out the prospect of new elections. An SPD-CDU coalition agreement was signed in March 2026, creating the
fifth Woidke cabinet. == Opinion polls ==