CDU and Greens meet for first talks after NRW elections

2022-05-18T13:14:50.553Z

CDU and Greens meet for first talks after NRW elections Created: 05/18/2022Updated: 05/18/2022 15:05 North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (l) and Mona Neubaur, top candidate and state chairwoman of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, in Düsseldorf. © Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa Beaming laughter on both sides and greeting with the Faust greeting - CDU and Greens go into their first round of talks af

CDU and Greens meet for first talks after NRW elections

Created: 05/18/2022Updated: 05/18/2022 15:05

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (l) and Mona Neubaur, top candidate and state chairwoman of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, in Düsseldorf.

Beaming laughter on both sides and greeting with the Faust greeting - CDU and Greens go into their first round of talks after the state election in a good mood.

It remains to be seen whether more will come of it.

Dusseldorf - Three days after the North Rhine-Westphalian state elections, the leaders of the CDU and the Greens met in Dusseldorf on Wednesday for an initial meeting.

Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and Green Party leader Mona Neubaur attended the meeting, each with four top representatives of their parties.

The two groups greeted each other in a good mood with "Hello" and the Faust greeting in front of the building of the West German Chamber of Crafts.

The CDU participants came a little too early and picked up their Greens discussion partners in front of the door.

According to both sides, the topic of the meeting should initially be an assessment of the current political situation in North Rhine-Westphalia.

When the CDU and the Greens arrived, around 20 nurses from the Düsseldorf University Hospital protested against the overload and lack of staff in front of the building.

Wüst and Neubaur stopped short.

The Green leader personally welcomed one of the demonstrators.

"We know each other," said Neubaur.

At the six university clinics in North Rhine-Westphalia, nurses and employees have been on strike for weeks for better working conditions.

Two climate protectors had also lined up with posters of lignite excavators and protested against the possible formation of a black-green coalition.

The CDU clearly won the state elections on Sunday with the Greens with 35.7 percent of the votes.

The Greens almost tripled their result compared to the 2017 election and became the third strongest force with 18.2 percent.

Neubaur had emphasized that the Greens would first talk to the election winner, the CDU, but were also available for talks with the SPD.

Mathematically, black-green has a clear majority in the newly elected state parliament of the most populous federal state.

A traffic light consisting of SPD, FPD and Greens would also be possible.

SPD top candidate and state party leader Thomas Kutschaty had made it clear after the historically worst result of the Social Democrats that the CDU would be the first to act.

Nevertheless, Kuchaty announced on Tuesday that he also wanted to invite the Greens and the FDP to talks.

The Liberals, who only just managed to get back into the state parliament, are already assuming that there will be the first black-green coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia.