Fourth Woidke cabinet

The fourth Woidke cabinet was the state government of Brandenburg formed on December 11, 2024. SPD Minister President Dietmar Woidke led the coalition of his party and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

This government ushered in the BSW as governing partner in any government in Germany for the first time as a so-called "red–purple coalition", two days ahead of BSW's entrance into the Voigt cabinet in Thuringia.^[1]

Excluding the Minister-President, the cabinet comprised ten ministers.^[2] Among them seven were members of the SPD, two were from the BSW and one without party affiliation nominated by BSW.^[3]

From November 2025 onwards, two BSW MPs resigned from their party^[4] and then from their parliamentary group due to ‘authoritarian tendencies’ within BSW.^[5]
On 6 January 2026, Woidke announced the end of cooperation with the BSW parliamentary group^[6] and the end of the coalition between SPD and BSW.^[7]

The three ministers chosen by the BSW (Finance minister Robert Crumbach, Health minister Britta Müller (de) and Infrastructure minister Detlef Tabbert (de) announced that they were no longer BSW members.^[8][9]

The three ministers remained in office and Woidke's government continued as a minority government. As Crumbach and BSW-nominated Vice-President of the Landtag Jouleen Gruhn joined the SPD parliamentary group, an SPD-CDU coalition would now have a majority of seats in the Landtag of Brandenburg and was pursued.^[10]

The AfD, leading in polls for a regular 2029 Brandenburg state election, tabled a motion to dissolve the Landtag for a snap election. In a special session on 9 January 2026, the move failed as it requires a two-thirds majority of 59 votes in order to pass.

In March 2026, Woidke succeeded in forming a coalition with the CDU. The cabinet was subsequently reshuffled. This reshuffled cabinet is often referred to as the Woidke V cabinet, although formally it is a continuation of the government that has been in place since 2024.

While the SPD gained 7 seats at the 2024 Brandenburg state election, the previous government were no longer able to command a majority as its main governing partner in the third Woidke cabinet the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lost three seats while the other partner, the Alliance 90/The Greens, failed to clear the 5% threshold and thus was completely shut out of the legislature. The composition of the Landtag is (as of 2024) as follows (showing only parties with seats before or after the election):

With the Landtag consisting 88 seats, 45 votes in the state parliament is the smallest majority. The Landtag held two ballots on December 11, 2024, and confirmed its confidence in Minister President Woidke on the second ballot.
Balloting for to confirm the Minister President were as follows:

The fourth Woidke cabinet was sworn in after Woidke received 50 out of 88 votes on the second ballot.

The State Secretaries are the most senior civil servants of the state of Brandenburg. They serve as departmental heads of the ministries, permanent deputies of the ministers, or — like the State Representative of Brandenburg to the Federal Government — take on special responsibilities.

• Second & Third Woidke cabinet
• 2024 Brandenburg state election
• Red–purple coalition