Armin Laschet is not particularly good at staging, recently he had little luck with photos, especially in the flood areas. His successor in the office of Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and in the office of CDU state chairman is very different: Shortly before 1 p.m., Hendrik Wüst and his wife Katharina enter the NRW state parliament, and he pushes a noble stroller.
The 46-year-old CDU politician became a father for the first time seven months ago. Daughter Philippa, called “Pippa”, will later call Wüst in his acceptance speech “my daily source of happiness and greatest motivation to want to make our country a little better every day”. The girl had “changed my view of the world once again,” said Wüst in the direction of the grandstand, where his wife and daughter were sitting. Pippa’s happy babbling could be heard all the way to the press box.
Wüst wants to deliver his first government statement in a week, so his acceptance speech was short. The greatest challenges are the preservation of creation and climate protection, and overcoming the pandemic and reconstruction after the flood are urgent. With everything he wanted to “think beyond the year 2022 for a policy that thinks about the next generation and not just about the next election,” promised Wüst.
Previously, the previous state transport minister had been elected Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia in the first round with 103 yes votes as the successor to Armin Laschet; there were 90 votes against, three abstentions and one invalid vote.
Armin Laschet was allowed to vote – and gave a farewell speech
Hendrik Wüst thus exceeded the necessary majority of 100 votes in the secret ballot. The state parliament had a special session because Armin Laschet has been a member of the Bundestag since Tuesday. The Union’s failed chancellor candidate had always ruled out a return to North Rhine-Westphalia in the federal election campaign, regardless of the outcome. In addition, according to the state constitution, a member of the NRW state government cannot be a member of the Bundestag at the same time.
After the historic election defeat of the Union and seven months before the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the vote on Wüst was eagerly awaited because the CDU / FDP coalition in Düsseldorf only has one vote majority. Because of the secret ballot, it is not known who the other two Wüst supporters were. The state parliament has a total of 199 members, 197 took part in the election. It is possible that Wüst also received votes from the AfD. Incidentally, Laschet was still allowed to vote as a member of the state parliament.
The former prime minister and still-CDU federal chairman made a relaxed, calm impression. He kept joking with members of parliament, laughing a lot. In his 20-minute farewell speech, Laschet remained true to himself and his content. As at the meeting of the Junge Union in Münster two weeks ago, where Laschet had given the best speech in months, he also campaigned for respect and decency in political cooperation in the state parliament. “Even when governments change, you have to treat each other fairly,” said Laschet, who had been head of government of North Rhine-Westphalia for more than four years. Neither in the government nor in the opposition should “succumb to the temptation to stir up hatred and resentment”.
“Handling power responsibly”
In addition to structural change, Europe, floods and integration, Laschet also addressed the pandemic. Probably no government had as much power as during the corona pandemic. “Nobody should fall into omnipotence fantasies about this,” warned Laschet and emphasized what he had always said at the beginning of the pandemic: “encroachments on fundamental rights must be withdrawn as quickly as possible.” Outside of North Rhine-Westphalia, his principle of “measure and middle” may have been seen as hesitation, said Laschet, probably with a view to Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder, who had presented himself as a strict Corona crisis manager. “But in North Rhine-Westphalia it is a tradition to use power responsibly.” He is particularly proud that “we got through this pandemic in accordance with the constitution”. Laschet concluded his speech with the following sentences: “It was a pleasure, it was an honor. Glückauf for our state of North Rhine-Westphalia.”