The state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia will elect Armin Laschet's successor as Prime Minister on Wednesday afternoon - the situation in the news ticker.
+++ 1.48 p.m.:
199 MPs elect the Prime Minister of
North
Rhine-Westphalia.
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One after the other, the names of the NRW MPs are read out in alphabetical order so that they cast their votes.
Laschet successor: State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia elects Prime Minister
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Now the election of the NRW Prime Minister begins.
+++ 12.45 p.m.:
Around 1 p.m., a special session began in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.
First report from Wednesday, October 27th, 2021, 12 noon:
Düsseldorf - Just under seven months before the state elections, a new Prime Minister is to be elected in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The state parliament will hold a special session this Wednesday (1 p.m.) to vote on the incumbent State Transport Minister Hendrik Wüst as the successor to Armin Laschet (both CDU).
The 46-year-old lawyer from the Münsterland is running for election as a joint candidate for the government factions of the CDU and FDP.
The vote is eagerly awaited, because black and yellow only have one vote majority in the state parliament.
If Wüst is elected, he will be sworn in as Prime Minister immediately afterwards.
The failed Union Chancellor candidate Laschet has been a member of parliament in Berlin since the constituent session of the Bundestag on Tuesday. Laschet had ruled out a return to NRW regardless of the outcome of the federal election in 2021 *. On Saturday, Wüst had already been elected as the new CDU state chairman at a party conference. He succeeds Laschet in this position as well.
In the first ballot, Wüst needs an absolute majority and thus all 100 votes from the CDU and FDP in order to be elected Prime Minister. The state parliament has a total of 199 members. If Wüst should fail in the first round, a second ballot would be scheduled. The state constitution allows a period of two weeks for this.
In the second round, the candidate then needs a simple majority, i.e. more yes votes than no votes. CDU parliamentary group leader Bodo Löttgen said on Monday that he was 100 percent sure that all the votes of the coalition groups would come together.
SPD opposition leader Thomas Kutschaty also assumed that the CDU / FDP government majority would be close. "Anything else would be a big surprise," he said. Neither the SPD nor the Greens or the AfD want to vote Wüst.
Before the vote, Laschet is officially adopted in the state parliament. He had already resigned from the state parliament president on Monday. According to the state constitution, a member of the NRW state government cannot be a member of the Bundestag at the same time. With the meeting of the Bundestag on Tuesday, Laschet's executive office also ended. His deputy, Family Minister Joachim Stamp (FDP), temporarily took over the management of government affairs.
As a member of the state parliament, Laschet Wüst can and wants to vote on Wednesday.
Laschet is probably only a member of the state parliament and the Bundestag for a short time.
(do with dpa / AFP)
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