Hendrik Wüst is the new chairman of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia. At a state party conference in Bielefeld on Saturday, the state transport minister and prime minister-designate was elected as Armin Laschet’s successor with 98.3 percent. The 46-year-old Wüst had no opponent.
645 votes in favor of the 656 eligible voters went to Wüst. There were 11 votes against and no abstentions or invalid votes. “Thank you very much for this gigantic result,” said Wüst. “I’ll work my way out to justify this advance praise.” Laschet, who had run as the Union’s candidate for chancellor this year, had already decided before the federal election not to remain in his offices in North Rhine-Westphalia even if he failed. Wüst is expected to be elected as the new Prime Minister in the state parliament next Wednesday.
Previously, the CDU federal chairman Laschet had warned his party not to talk about crisis scenarios after the defeat of the Union in the federal election. Speaking of the “greatest crisis of the CDU since 1945” does not inspire “any voter at all to re-elect the CDU,” he said at the state party conference. Such statements are “complete nonsense”. Rather, the CDU party donation affair in 2000 was in case of doubt a major crisis for the party. “Leave cups in the cupboard, approach things realistically,” said Laschet. Previously, the Federal Minister of Health and CDU Vice President Jens Spahn said on Deutschlandfunk that the CDU was in the greatest crisis in its history.
(23.10.2021)
FDP sees “no sustainable alternatives” to the traffic light
FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing sees “no viable alternatives” to a government alliance with the SPD and the Greens. A failure of the coalition negotiations is “not an option,” said Wissing New Osnabrück Newspaper. The talks will be conducted “responsibly and constructively”, he assured, and reaffirmed the relevance of climate protection in the negotiations. The SPD, Greens and FDP started their coalition talks on Thursday.
“All three parties know that it takes an enormous effort to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. We are ready and want to make our contribution to achieve real climate protection,” said Wissing. Looking at the annual investment needs of 50 billion euros that the Greens see, he said: “We will negotiate with one another to what extent we invest.” All investments must be “solidly financed”. But it is just as clear that attention must be paid to currency stability.
Wissing sees investments not only as a state responsibility. “The transformation of the economy towards climate neutrality, the implementation of digitization and the management of demographic change are Herculean tasks that the state cannot master alone,” said Wissing. In a market economy, these are also the tasks of companies. “We have set ourselves an ambitious goal of making the necessary investments possible without increasing taxes.” (23.10.2021)
Spahn positions himself for election to the party chairmanship
According to party vice-president Jens Spahn, the CDU is in the greatest crisis in its history. “I would like to shape the new CDU,” said the Federal Minister of Health on Deutschlandfunk. It is an honor for every Christian Democrat to be chairman of the CDU. At the same time, respect demanded to adhere to the agreed procedures and to wait for the district chairperson’s conference planned for the end of next week. After Angela Merkel’s withdrawal from party leadership two years ago, the open competition for her successor did the CDU good, said Spahn. There is currently a broad base need to participate in decision-making. At the same time, there is a need not to have a fight. Therefore, there has to be a team that brings the party together.
After its defeat in the federal election, the CDU is striving for a staff and content renewal. A special party congress is to re-elect the entire board. Party leader Armin Laschet had announced that he would put his own ambitions on hold. Spahn, the economic expert Friedrich Merz, Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus or the foreign politician Norbert Röttgen are traded as candidates for his successor.
Merz explained in a guest post for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitunghow the Union should shape its role as an opposition. Authority and the approval of the voters do not arise “in elegant surfing on the wave of the zeitgeist, but only in convincing factual work and with convincing people”. In the opposition, the Union must now carry out the practical work on its own, without resorting to the apparatus and expertise of a government: But that is also a great opportunity. Because “rethinking our country and protecting our values at the same time” could also unleash new creativity and be attractive to new groups of voters. (10/22/2021)
The SPD, the Greens and the FDP are aiming for the election of Chancellor in the second week of December
The SPD, Greens and FDP are striving to form a government quickly. FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing said on Thursday at the beginning of the coalition negotiations that a contract should be presented by the end of November, the new Federal Chancellor should be elected and the new government formed in the week of December 6th.
SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil said that the work of the individual working groups would start next Wednesday. These should work out positions by November 10th, which should then go to the main negotiating groups. (10/22/2021)
300 people are now discussing the traffic light coalition
Almost a month after the general election in Germany, the SPD, Greens and FDP begin their coalition negotiations on Thursday to form a joint federal government. The main negotiators, six high-ranking representatives from each party, meet with the heads of the working groups at the Berlin exhibition center. A total of 22 working groups with specialist politicians will then negotiate the details of a coalition agreement in the coming weeks. According to the SPD, around 300 people will be involved.
The SPD, Greens and FDP are striving to form a joint government before Christmas. It would be the first so-called traffic light coalition at the federal level. The main sticking points in the search for a joint program are differences in tax and financial policy and the right path to climate protection. The SPD, Greens and FDP are heading for difficult negotiations about the financial viability of their projects.
The distribution of offices usually comes at the end of coalition negotiations. At least the key position of finance minister is already being publicly debated. Politicians from the FDP and the Greens had brought their respective party leaders Christian Lindner and Robert Habeck into play. The Greens co-chair Annalena Baerbock underlined on Wednesday evening in the ARD “Tagesthemen” that they had agreed to first tighten the “content-related guard rails” and then to clarify the departmental issues.
Baerbock insisted that the government should be occupied equally. SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz had always stressed in the election campaign that his cabinet would be made up of women and men in equal parts. That is “not a sure-fire success,” warned the Green leader. (21.10.2021)
Construction industry demands its own building ministry in Berlin
The trade union IG Bau and the construction industry are calling for the future federal government to have its own building ministry. “Housing is the social question of our time. And it deserves the political weight of its own federal ministry,” said the federal chairman of the industrial union for construction, agriculture and the environment, Robert Feiger, the newspapers of the Funke media group. For 23 years, the building department has been leading a “nomadic life” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/. “It was always an appendage – with traffic, with the environment, with the interior.” The Federal Ministry of the Interior is currently responsible for building.
The General Manager of the Main Association of the German Construction Industry (HDB), Tim-Oliver Müller, demanded: “We need a strong Federal Ministry for Construction and Infrastructure to implement the huge projects to modernize our infrastructure.” One of the essential levers for the success of the mobility and energy transition will be an ambitious construction policy, said Müller. “Building must no longer be an annex to a department, but must be placed at the center of action.”
In their explorations, the SPD, Greens and FDP had already agreed on the goal of building 400,000 new apartments per year. “That means almost 1,100 newly built, ready-to-move apartments every day from Monday to Sunday – 46 an hour, three apartments every four minutes,” said Feiger. “This is a round-the-clock task. And it requires full strength, full political commitment and full weight at the cabinet table.” (21.10.2021)