The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia has always emphasized that there is no way back to Düsseldorf for Armin Laschet. Now he is nailing it and recommends a successor to his party.
The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) wants to propose his party friend and incumbent State Transport Minister Hendrik Wüst as his successor. Laschet wants to recommend the 46-year-old to the CDU board on Tuesday for the office of prime minister as well as for the state chairmanship of his party, the AFP news agency learned from the factions that support the state government. Wüst has been the favorite for the successor for weeks.
The new Prime Minister must be elected by the Düsseldorf state parliament. A state party conference in Bielefeld will decide on the new party leadership on October 23. Wüst had received ever broader support from the party in recent weeks – most recently even from the influential federal chairman of the Christian-Democratic workforce, North Rhine-Westphalia Labor Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU). Wüst should become “the future man of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia,” he announced last weekend.
Wüst meets the requirements
Unlike some of the other potential successor candidates mentioned above, Wüst fulfills the constitutional requirement that he has a mandate in the state parliament and that he could be elected as prime minister directly by the state parliament. The next regular state election in North Rhine-Westphalia is on May 15, 2022.
Before the general election, Laschet had declared that he was going to Berlin “without a return ticket” – even if he did not become Chancellor. In the federal election, the CDU had to accept significant losses, even in the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Armin Laschet cannot remain Prime Minister
As number one on the CDU state list, however, Laschet has won a Bundestag mandate. According to the state constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia, a member of the state government cannot be a member of the Bundestag or the federal government at the same time. The membership of a newly elected member of the Bundestag begins with the constituent session, which is scheduled for October 26th.
The designated Prime Minister voted himself and the NRW CDU in Rheine for the elections next year at the weekend. “We have to trust ourselves again not only to chase after the zeitgeist, but also to shape it.” The voters wanted to see the direction and attitude of the CDU. The middle of society must defend its values, “against agitation from the right as well as against the prohibitions from the left”. He also called on the CDU to unity. “We can only start together if we are in agreement,” said Wüst.
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