Around four weeks after the state elections in Saarland, the change of government took place on Monday: In its constitutive session, the state parliament in Saarbrücken elected SPD politician Anke Rehlinger as the new prime minister.

The 46-year-old Rehlinger received 32 of the 51 votes in the vote.

That was three votes more than the governing SPD parliamentary group has seats.

19 MPs voted against them.

26 votes were needed for the election.

Rehlinger was then sworn in.

In a first reaction, Rehlinger thanked for the trust.

She succeeds the previous Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) and will head a sole government of the SPD.

Rehlinger is the fourth woman to head a federal state, alongside Malu Dreyer in Rhineland-Palatinate, Manuela Schwesig in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Franziska Giffey in Berlin (all SPD).

Previously, she had been economics minister and deputy prime minister in the grand coalition since 2014.

For the SPD, it was the first election victory in Saarland in decades.

Since 1999, the CDU had consistently provided the prime minister.

The SPD now has 29 of the 51 seats, the CDU 19. The AfD has three seats.

All other parties are not represented in the state parliament.

No coalition partner needed

Before Rehlinger's election on Monday, the state parliament had already unanimously elected SPD politician Heike Becker as its new president.

Becker is the first woman to head the Saarland state parliament.

The administration specialist from Neunkirchen has been a member of the SPD since 2007.

She has been a substitute in the state parliament since 2019.

The SPD won the state election on March 27 with 43.5 percent of the vote, well ahead of the CDU, which fell to 28.5 percent.

The AfD got 5.7 percent.

The Greens narrowly missed entering the state parliament with 4.99502 percent, and the FDP and the Saarland left, which had been strong for a long time, also failed at the five percent hurdle.

The Social Democrats now have an absolute majority.

Shortly after the election, Rehlinger announced that he was aiming for a one-man government.

This makes Saarland the only federal state in which a party can govern without a coalition partner.

The swearing-in of the new state cabinet in the state parliament is scheduled for Tuesday.

Rehlinger presented this last week.

She appointed Jürgen Barke as Economics Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

Jakob von Weizsäcker is to become the new finance and science minister.

The previous Environment Minister Reinhold Jost is to take over the Ministry of the Interior.

Petra Berg is to become his successor in the Ministry of the Environment.

Magnus Jung will be the new labor minister.

However, there are no changes at the Ministry of Education, where Christine Streichert-Clivot is continuing her work.

On Tuesday, Rehlinger's first government statement is on the agenda.