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NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst would remain Prime Minister in a black-green alliance
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
Who will rule in North Rhine-Westphalia in the future?
Initial projections after the state election see the CDU (35.5 percent) as the clear winner, the SPD (27.3 percent) with a historically poor result and the Greens (18.3 percent) as the biggest winners.
Whoever governs in Düsseldorf in the future is likely to depend largely on the Greens.
Without the party of top candidate Mona Neubaur, only a grand coalition of the CDU and SPD is currently possible.
However, this is considered unlikely.
Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst
already sees the projections as a “clear government mandate for me and the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia”.
Wüst said he would speak to all democratic parties, a dig at the AfD.
At the same time, however, he also made suggestions that can be read as advances to the Greens.
It is "about the great challenge of reconciling climate protection and industrialized countries," said Wüst - and thus addressed a core concern of the Greens.
Economic must be combined with ecological competence in order to advance the country, he said on ZDF.
Green top candidate Mona Neubaur
initially
kept all options for exploratory talks open.
It is not possible to form a government bypassing the Greens, said Neubaur.
Climate protection will play a major role.
"There will be strong green handwriting."
SPD top candidate Thomas Kutschaty
, who achieved the worst result since the Second World War with the Social Democrats in the federal state, has meanwhile also been willing to negotiate about participation in the government.
"We are open to all discussions," Kuchaty said on ARD.
However, he could not give a final statement on possible coalitions on the evening of the election.
Kuchaty also initially did not want to comment on a possible traffic light coalition.
Leading Social Democrats in Berlin were more offensive.
"If there is a possibility of forming a government led by the SPD, then we will of course offer talks to the other parties," Secretary General Kevin Kühnert
said
first.
Co-party leader
Lars Klingbeil
pointed out that the goal of voting out the black and yellow government in North Rhine-Westphalia had been achieved.
If there is a possibility of forming an SPD-led government, "then we as the SPD offer to seize this opportunity".
The SPD would have overlaps with the Greens in terms of content, but according to the projections there are only a few votes missing in the state parliament for a red-green coalition.
A traffic light coalition with the FDP would be mathematically possible, but is considered politically very unlikely.
According to projections, the party is only just above the five percent hurdle.
FDP top candidate Joachim Stamp
initially did not want to comment on a possible government participation in view of the severe losses (minus 7.3 percentage points compared to 2017).
The question of a possible coalition participation does not arise after the election result, Stamp said on ZDF.
He conceded a "very serious defeat".
fek/dpa/Reuters
