Kuchaty with a tailwind in the NRW election campaign

Created: 04/02/2022Updated: 04/02/2022, 16:25

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD, r) and SPD top candidate Thomas Kutschaty.

© Bernd Thissen/dpa

The former social democratic heartland of North Rhine-Westphalia has been governed by a black and yellow coalition for five years.

According to the will of the SPD, this should change again on May 15th.

SPD top candidate Kutschaty is combative and confident at the start of the election campaign in Essen.

Essen – With the support of the SPD leadership around Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Thomas Kuschaty should succeed in changing power in North Rhine-Westphalia on May 15.

Scholz assured the SPD's top candidate for the state elections in 43 days of full support and is convinced that an SPD government in the Rhine and Ruhr can best solve the difficult problems of the future.

Kuschaty is "a man with very clear plans and a clever mind," said the Chancellor at the start of the NRW-SPD election campaign on Saturday on Burgplatz in Essen.

"He knows what it's all about when you want to lead such a large industrial state as North Rhine-Westphalia.

But there is also someone with their heart in the right place who knows that things have to be fair in a country like this if there is to be a future for all citizens.”

Even if for many people, given their everyday problems in Corona times and the brutal war in Ukraine, the focus is not yet on the state elections, Scholz emphasized the importance of the NRW vote.

People would ponder, form their judgment carefully.

“And the closer election day gets, the more so.

As you can see, you can really win.

We saw that in the Bundestag elections and the final chord that the SPD put in there,” the Chancellor referred to the change in the federal government last autumn.

“And that will also work now.

A lot of people, I am very convinced of that, will make their cross with the SPD.”

At the home game in his native city of Essen, Kutschaty was pleased about the great support from the federal SPD, the leaders of which had come to Essen.

As Prime Minister, in contrast to the incumbent Hendrik Wüst (CDU), he wants to take responsibility for the country and the people.

Kutschaty outlined the most urgent topics for him, such as the rapid expansion of renewable energies, well and fairly paid work based on the already agreed increase in the minimum wage, free education from daycare to the master’s certificate, stopping the clear-cutting in the hospital system or the Construction of 100,000 new homes.

The lawyer promised that every fourth newly built apartment would be built in NRW.

"I stand for a better future in North Rhine-Westphalia",

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The general secretary of the NRW-SPD, Nadja Lüders, had previously presented the election posters.

Kuchaty can be seen talking to citizens in three of the seven large motifs.

The red-framed posters are decorated with lettering such as "NRW needs care - better working conditions immediately", "Choose fair rents - affordable housing for everyone", "For good and safe work - Thomas Kutschaty" or "Modern in all classes - best prospects for our schools “.

Kuchaty's daughter can also be seen on the latter poster, as Lüders revealed.

The three-hour event, moderated by TV presenter and journalist Shary Reeves, was repeatedly disturbed by loud shouts and whistles from a group of obvious corona critics.

Nevertheless, neither Scholz and Kutschaty nor the two SPD party chairmen Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil or the new Saarland Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger, who appeared as a surprise guest, could be disturbed.

Esken and Klingbeil emphasized in unison how important it is that NRW is governed by a strong personality.

And Rehlinger, who got the absolute majority for the SPD in Saarland last Sunday, encouraged her comrade for the coming weeks: “A change is also possible in North Rhine-Westphalia.

It doesn't have to be a one-man government, but one in which the SPD is at the top. dpa