The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

CDU party congress in North Rhine-Westphalia: Armin Laschet enjoys his departure

2021-10-23T15:59:18.827Z


The departure of Armin Laschet begins at the state party conference of the North Rhine-Westphalia CDU: Hendrik Wüst replaces him as state chairman of the party - the next prank is to follow on Wednesday.


Enlarge image

The old and the new: Armin Laschet (left) with successor Hendrik Wüst

Photo: Revierfoto / imago images / Revierfoto

It must have been a very special moment for the whipping boy in the last federal election, balm for the soul, a five-minute bath in the wellness oasis: Armin Laschet receives hand-stopped 4.40 minutes from the 656 delegates in the Bielefeld city hall.

The current state chairman of the party and still prime minister of the most populous state shortly before his replacement is clearly enjoying the moment.

Smiles, walks back and forth between his seat and the speaker's desk, sits down, gets up again, dutifully weighs down, at some point the camera direction pulls the picture away from him into the hall and onto the delegates.

Back to the »team sport«

Unity.

That is the most important picture that should emerge from the 43rd state party congress after the disaster in the federal election.

Laschet himself previously spoke of a "family festival", the district chairman of East Westphalia, Ralph Brinkhaus, spoke of politics as a "team sport" and when you talk to those involved, there is hardly a word that is currently mentioned and practically invoked as often as that "Unity".

The NRW Union is committed to this unity, almost doomed to it.

Elections will take place in North Rhine-Westphalia in May, and the new state chairman and probably from Wednesday also the state's new prime minister, Hendrik Wüst, should not lose the office again immediately.

Unity has been one of the Union's major strengths in recent years.

The federal party recently learned what can happen if it is missing.

Or, to put it with the district chairman of the CDU Bielefeld: It was said, “with Söder we would have won the election.

I say we lost the election because of Söder. "

The conservatives hardly have time to lick their wounds and mourn; instead, the recipe called out at this state party congress is a triad: looking back at the past, there is a lot of praise with a dash of self-criticism.

Anger towards Bavaria and the indiscretions in their own ranks currently dominates.

And for the future you just wish: unity.

The situation in North Rhine-Westphalia is different than in the federal government, "we are united, united and strong and that too, dear Armin, is due to you," says Hendrik Wüst, the state party's hope for the future, during his application speech for the state chairmanship.

Disagreement and opposition have something to do with each other.

After losing the Bundestag election and presumably losing government participation, one shouldn't lose "decency, behavior and attitude".

98.3 percent for Wüst

As before, Wüst praised Laschet, Building Minister Ina Scharrenbach and Interior Minister Herbert Reul, who until recently both saw themselves as potential prime ministers and whose support he will need.

He also praises the past years under Laschet, the corona policy of the state government - and yet it seems more rehearsed compared to Laschet.

While Laschet played free on the last few meters of his NRW career and enjoyed the home game, appeared relaxed, jovial, emphatic, Wüst's speech follows the firm plan to unite political opponents from within his own ranks and the parliamentary group behind him.

As a rule, that interests those who are addressed.

You don't really kindle storms of enthusiasm in this way.

But at the closed state party conference, 645 of 656 delegates still vote for Wüst as the new state chairman.

Zero abstentions, no invalid votes and eleven votes against resulted in 98.3 percent approval - as expected, Wüst mastered his first hurdle on the way to becoming Prime Minister.

The new state chairman himself calls it a “gigantic result”.

Then on Wednesday the next step

On Monday, Armin Laschet will submit his resignation as Prime Minister to the President of the NRW State Parliament, and on Wednesday Wüst will be elected Prime Minister in a special session of the State Parliament.

Here, too, his election is considered to be relatively safe, despite the conceivable narrow majority of votes of the incumbent government alliance made up of the Union and the FDP.

Together with 100 votes in the state parliament, you have exactly one vote more than the opposition.

In order to have a chance to continue to govern after the election in May 2022, you cannot afford to make a mistake, it takes absolute discipline.

Or just: unity.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-10-23

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.