The previous cabinet was a coalition government of the SPD and
The Greens led by Minister-President Stephan Weil of the SPD. The election took place on 15 October 2017, and resulted in a modest improvement for the SPD and losses for the Greens. The opposition CDU fell to second place behind the SPD. The
FDP also took small losses, while the
AfD debuted at 6%. Overall, the incumbent coalition lost its majority as the decline in Greens support outweighed SPD gains. The FDP ruled out a coalition with the SPD and Greens while the Greens ruled out a coalition with the CDU and FDP, leaving a
grand coalition of the SPD and CDU as the only practical option. The two parties agreed to begin discussions on 26 October. On 16 November, they announced that they had come to an agreement, which was approved by the SPD party congress two days later and the CDU congress on the 20th. It was formally signed the next day. Weil was elected as Minister-President by the Landtag on 22 November 2017, winning 104 votes out of 137 cast. == Composition ==