Laschet succession
The NRW state parliament is to elect Wüst as the new prime minister
The 46-year-old lawyer Hendrik Wüst is running for election as a joint candidate for the government factions of the CDU and FDP. Photo: Marius Becker / dpa
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North Rhine-Westphalia is about to change hands: Hendrik Wüst is available as the successor to the previous Prime Minister Armin Laschet. The vote in the state parliament could be exciting.
A new prime minister is to be elected in North Rhine-Westphalia just under seven months before the state elections. The Landtag comes together for a special session to vote on the incumbent State Transport Minister Hendrik Wüst as the successor to Armin Laschet (both CDU).
The 46-year-old lawyer from the Münsterland is running for election as a joint candidate for the government factions of the CDU and FDP. The vote is eagerly awaited, because black and yellow only has one vote majority in the state parliament. If Wüst is elected, he will be sworn in as Prime Minister immediately afterwards.
The failed Union Chancellor candidate Laschet has been a member of parliament in Berlin since the constituent session of the Bundestag on Tuesday. Laschet had ruled out a return to North Rhine-Westphalia regardless of the outcome of the federal election. On Saturday, Wüst had already been elected as the new CDU state chairman at a party conference. He succeeds Laschet in this position as well.
Wüst needs an absolute majority
In the first ballot, Wüst needs an absolute majority and thus all 100 votes from the CDU and FDP in order to be elected Prime Minister. The state parliament has a total of 199 members. If Wüst should fail in the first round, a second ballot would be scheduled. The state constitution allows a period of two weeks for this.
In the second round, the candidate then needs a simple majority, i.e. more yes votes than no votes. CDU parliamentary group leader Bodo Löttgen said on Monday that he was 100 percent sure that all the votes of the coalition groups would come together.
SPD opposition leader Thomas Kutschaty also assumed that the CDU / FDP government majority would be close. “Anything else would be a big surprise,” he said. Neither the SPD nor the Greens or AfD want to vote Wüst.
Laschet as a member of the Landtag and Bundestag
Before the vote, Laschet is officially adopted in the state parliament. He had already resigned from the state parliament president on Monday. According to the state constitution, a member of the NRW state government cannot be a member of the Bundestag at the same time. With the meeting of the Bundestag, Laschet’s executive office also ended on Tuesday. His deputy, Family Minister Joachim Stamp (FDP), temporarily took over the management of government affairs.
As a member of the state parliament, Laschet Wüst can and wants to vote on Wednesday. Laschet is probably only a member of the state parliament and the Bundestag for a short time.