Family camping and hard elbow work - That's SPD-NRW candidate Thomas Kutschaty
Created: 04/26/2022, 16:40
By: Fabian Hartmann
The SPD politician Thomas Kutschaty would like to become prime minister in North Rhine-Westphalia.
All about the man who wants to rule the most populous state.
Munich – The education policy.
She is particularly important to Thomas Kutschaty.
In the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the 53-year-old SPD top candidate promises that it should be a "top priority".
Kuchaty knows how important education is.
He himself comes from so-called “small circumstances”.
Born in the working-class town of Essen, father on the railways, mother a saleswoman.
Kuchaty was the first in the family to graduate from high school.
Then law studies, work as a lawyer – and at the same time promotion to the SPD.
Such stories touch the heart of the party.
Even if the Malocher image is now more folklore: social advancement is a core promise of the SPD, still.
And especially in North Rhine-Westphalia.
NRW election: Head-to-head race between Prime Minister Wüst and Thomas Kuschaty
Kuchaty could soon have the opportunity to put his ideas into practice.
On May 15, North Rhine-Westphalia will elect a new state parliament and the latest polls show a neck-and-neck race between Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst's ruling CDU and Kuchaty's SPD.
The Social Democrats' top candidate is optimistic.
"We'll win tomorrow for you" is the title of his party's election platform.
This includes: classic SPD demands such as the cessation of all daycare fees, low rents, more schools in hotspots and free local transport for young people.
Just social justice.
Kuchaty is not a speaker.
The
Rheinische Post
calls him a "friend of calmer tones and considered sentences".
But that shouldn't hide the fact that Kuchaty is a political professional through and through.
And it has been there for a long time.
He came to Düsseldorf through the Jusos and local politics.
He has been a member of the state parliament since 2005.
For the political career, Kuchaty had to use his elbows more than once.
In the fight for the presidency of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia, he defeated his inner-party rival Sebastian Hartmann in a dirty, partly public duel.
Wants to govern NRW: SPD top candidate Thomas Kutschaty © Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Kuchaty also showed elsewhere that he can be tough as nails.
When it became known that Petra Hinz (SPD), member of the North Rhine-Westphalia Bundestag, had falsified her CV, it was Kuchaty who put the pistol to her chest.
He publicly called on his party friend to resign from the Bundestag within 48 hours.
Hinz later said that Kuchaty had "finally cleared them for shooting".
Kuchaty also intervened within the party during the election campaign.
For example, when a prominent member of the North Rhine-Westphalia party shot across the street with a blog post about the atrocities in Butscha.
However, he tried to divert the pressure on the SPD from the "Putin problem" to the CDU.
NRW election: Thomas Kutschaty was already a minister under Hannelore Kraft
With a mixture of toughness and a friendly demeanor, Kuchaty has made it to the top of the state party.
He is also the head of the parliamentary group in Düsseldorf and deputy federal chairman of his party.
And: He has already sensed government responsibility.
From 2010 to 2017 he was Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Hannelore Kraft (SPD).
The Friday
describes him as a kind of "Last Man Standing" from the old Kraft troupe
.
So now the power grab.
NRW election: Family man Thomas Kutschaty likes to go camping – “that grounds”
In the election campaign, Kuchaty benefits from the fact that he comes across as authentic.
His humble background evidently shaped his political thinking.
To this day he lives in the north of Essen, just a stone's throw away from the settlement where he once grew up.
The city of Essen is divided, the south is wealthy, the north is proletarian.
Kuchaty likes to illustrate the division of the city using the tram route.
Halfway the audience changes;
it is getting younger, poorer, more migrant.
The chic state capital Düsseldorf with the boulevard Kö is far away from here - also habitually.
Kuchaty says he doesn't care much for luxury.
He likes to go camping on vacation.
“That grounds,” says the politician.
The Ruhr area, advancement through education, social justice.
Kuschaty embodies the buzzwords that once made the SPD big on the Rhine and Ruhr.
So it's no wonder that the party is fully committed to personalization in the election campaign - and puts the father of three children (one daughter, two adult sons) at the center of its campaign.
It is quite possible that Kuchaty will soon have reached his goal.
In the Düsseldorf State Chancellery.
Otherwise, it is said here and there, the career of the SPD deputy could also be on the verge of the end.
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