"There is not much left of love": NRW election winner CDU enraged FDP - Laschet celebrates with Wüst
Created: 05/16/2022, 05:05
By: Florian Naumann
The NRW elections provided plenty of fuel: the CDU wins, but faces a problem - the previous partner, the FDP, has a cold.
The reactions in the ticker.
State elections in North Rhine-Westphalia: The polls in the most populous federal state are also being closely observed in Berlin.
The result from NRW delivered a surprise: the CDU won clearly - but pulverized its coalition partner.
The federal SPD initially seemed unmoved on red-green.
On Sunday evening, the FDP was shocked by a “horrible evening”, but also had a cold.
In this
news ticker we keep you
up to date on the most important reactions to the NRW elections.
Update from May 15, 12:23 a.m .:
The election night in North Rhine-Westphalia is over – the CDU can feel like the winner.
The Conservatives still have to cope with the difficult task of forming a coalition with the Greens or the SPD, but their victory at the ballot box is undisputed.
The outcome could also have indirect consequences for federal politics: The Greens act as traffic light kings - and black-green as a model for success.
We will keep you up to date on all further developments in our news ticker for the NRW election from early Monday morning.
Update from May 15, 10:15 p.m .:
CDU top candidate Hendrik Wüst speaks in these minutes before his party’s campaigners of a “crystal clear government order”.
Predecessor Armin Laschet is on stage with Wüst.
Wüst explicitly congratulates the Greens, but avoids a coalition commitment: the aim is to “form a stable government”, he wants to speak to “all democratic parties” in Parliament, emphasizes the Prime Minister – according to current projections, these would be the SPD, Greens and FDP.
With the Liberals, however, there would be no majority.
Greens top candidate Mona Neubaur also avoids a clear coalition statement on WDR.
Neubaur avoids the question "what makes her heart beat": "My heart beats for Düsseldorf on the Rhine," she says.
It is too early to give a direction.
NRW election: FDP angry at election winner CDU – "There is not much left of love"
Update from May 15, 9:08 p.m .:
The CDU is the clear winner of the NRW election: Projections see the party of top candidate Hendrik Wüst at the hour before the SPD for a good nine percentage points – this was after the latest election polls and an interim slump in the Christian Democrats October 2021 not necessarily to be expected.
However, the CDU probably needs at least two coalition parties.
And the previous partner, the FDP, raises allegations on election night.
"We have seen that our coalition partner has claimed a great deal of success, which is ultimately our responsibility," said her top candidate Joachim Stamp on the Phoenix TV channel: "Then there is no longer the much-vaunted black and yellow love in the election campaign so much left over - we also take note of that."
Wüst, on the other hand, thanked the Liberals in a first reaction in the evening.
"We have governed our country well in recent years and made good progress," said Wüst, referring to the FDP.
They worked together “in a friendly and reliable relationship”.
Stamp, meanwhile, expected the FDP to lose government responsibility.
"We have two clear election winners and I assume that the two will also form a coalition with each other," said the FDP state chairman on WDR.
He pointed to the two top candidates from the CDU and the Greens, Wüst and Mona Neubaur.
Winner of the 2022 NRW election: Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU).
©Oliver Berg/dpa
NRW election hits SPD and FDP hard: Greens even have pity – “horrible evening”
Update from May 15, 7:20 p.m .:
SPD, FDP, Linke and AfD are already frowning early on the NRW election evening.
According to the current projections, all four parties have lost significantly - the FDP in particular with a presumed minus of around seven percentage points.
The Liberals even have to worry about being able to re-enter the state parliament.
FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann speaks on ZDF of a miserable result for her party, on ARD of a "horrible evening".
"It is absolutely clear that we cannot go back to business as usual here," said top candidate Joachim Stamp.
There was pity from the Greens: "Tonight I wish the FDP that it stays in the state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia as a democratic force," said Bundestag faction leader Britta Haßelmann.
SPD party leader Lars Klingbeil indirectly blamed the state association after what was probably the historically worst SPD result in North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to his impression, the election campaign was more about state political decisions than about federal politics, he said on ZDF.
Top candidate Thomas Kutschaty tried to be calm - and at least didn't want to slam the door to a traffic light coalition or red-green prematurely.
"We will not close talks," he said in front of supporters in Düsseldorf.
The left once again missed entering the NRW state parliament, this time with a good two percent.
"The party is currently in a difficult situation," admitted party leader Janine Wissler in the second.
AfD spokesman Tino Chrupalla had promised a review himself, but also targeted public television: "Alternative voices are not desired there," he claimed;
the AfD therefore has a harder time “than other small parties”.
Update from May 15, 6:34 p.m .:
Green leader Ricarda Lang remains cautious about NRW coalitions.
"It's not about 'governing the main thing', it's about 'governing with the right content,'" she says on ZDF.
At least a small preference for a possible alliance with the SPD let her through: Of course it is not “undecided” who the coalition partner is.
The Greens are likely to tip the scales in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Without the party, only one majority variant is conceivable: a grand coalition of CDU and SPD.
According to current extrapolation data, red-green is missing a seat for the majority.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) also remains cautious.
"We lost that election.
The Union and the Greens won, so they have to conduct the talks first.
Everything else comes afterwards," he says on ARD.
"Maybe it's still just enough for red-green," he added.
"But this is not the moment where we speculate about what kind of government we are going to form again." First of all, one has to accept the defeat.
NRW election: Kühnert controls explosive coalition construct - Spahn attests "shock"
Update from May 15, 6:15 p.m .:
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert is apparently already preparing the option of a red-green coalition in NRW.
"Black and yellow has been deselected," he says in the first.
An alliance of SPD and Greens is popular in the country, if there is a possibility, one must explore accordingly.
That a second-placed party leads a coalition "wouldn't be a novelty either," says Kühnert.
The election result also reflects less a defeat of the SPD than an election campaign by the CDU at the expense of the coalition partner FDP.
Former CDU minister Jens Spahn countered coolly: he attested Kühnert a "shock" in view of the weak SPD result.
Kühnert performs "contortions" to make the SPD look better.
According to the first NRW projections, the CDU won the election, but a state parliament majority for the SPD and the Greens seems possible - especially if the FDP and/or AfD miss the five percent hurdle.
NRW election: Ukraine trouble and coalition gossip for Scholz and Co.?
CDU and SPD threaten hot days
Preliminary report:
Munich/Düsseldorf – North Rhine-Westphalia elects a new state parliament.
And unlike the previous state elections in Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland, according to polls, a close race to win the election is to be expected.
It is quite possible that the election result from North Rhine-Westphalia will send waves of shock or outrage to political Berlin.
NRW election: Scholz and Merz look to Dusseldorf – voting not only about Wüst and Kuchaty
On the one hand, the office of prime minister in the most populous federal state is symbolically important.
The loss of CDU power in Düsseldorf would be an unpleasant setback for the still relatively freshly elected party leader Friedrich Merz.
For the SPD, North Rhine-Westphalia is considered the “heart chamber” anyway.
From 1966 to 2005, the Social Democrats held office in Düsseldorf as state fathers;
From 2010 to 2017, Hannelore Kraft was followed by an SPD woman as head of the state chancellery.
The old "people's parties" - and still in good shape in North Rhine-Westphalia - are feeling the pressure.
And of course the vote of the approximately 13 million eligible voters could also fuel national political debates.
Politics in Ukraine recently dominated the news in Germany.
Merz tried to put Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) under pressure with a trip to Kyiv, among other things.
A clear NRW victory could support his positions.
Election in NRW: reactions to the outcome – is there a coalition scandal?
Coalition number games bring additional explosiveness to the state elections.
On the one hand, the CDU had a small but stable lead in the polls shortly before election day.
On the other hand, the SPD and the Greens could get a majority, but in any case for a traffic light.
So a government without the possible winner of the election, the CDU.
Forming a government against the winner of the election would be a minor affront.
Still, it could be within the realm of possibility.
A red-green coalition would be an obvious option for both the SPD and the Greens.
The CDU, on the other hand, will probably not be able to continue its alliance with the FDP - and will have to get the Greens or the SPD on its side to find a majority.
The anger of the Christian Democrats would be great, however, if the top candidate Hendrik Wüst went away empty-handed despite the election victory.
At the same time, the NRW election is of great importance for the Bundesrat.
North Rhine-Westphalia has six votes in the state chamber.
If the CDU flies out of the state government in Düsseldorf, a small Gau for the conservatives could follow in the next state election in autumn – in the state election in Lower Saxony: With another flop, the CDU and CSU would then receive less than half of the votes in the second (Co-)control the chamber.
This did not mean that the left had a traffic light majority in the Bundesrat due to several government participations.
But in any case, a severe loss of importance for the Union.
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