portrait
Status: 05/12/2022 09:23 a.m
Hendrik Wüst’s political rise was marked by setbacks. He also owes the post of prime minister to many a happy turn of events – now he has to fight for power.
Prime Minister in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous federal state – that per se goes hand in hand with a lot of power and influence: the state elections between the Rhine and Weser are therefore called “small federal elections”.
The Düsseldorf head of government Hendrik Wüst is likely to have looked closely at the outcome of the election in the small Saarland, where the Christian Democrat Tobias Hans was voted out at the end of March.
Like Wüst, he too came into office without an election – in 2018 as the successor to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. And Hans failed when he had to face the vote of the voters.
But maybe these days, with Daniel Günther’s election victory in Schleswig-Holstein, there will be tailwind for Wüst from the north. Wüst could use that. The latest polls predict a head-to-head race with his SPD challenger, Thomas Kutschaty. Wüst did not have much time to make a name for himself as prime minister. The 46-year-old only took over the government business from Armin Laschet in October last year.
Wüst’s way to the State Chancellery
However, the crown prince of Laschet was never Wüst. With his appointment to Minister of Transport in 2017, Laschet involved a competitor in cabinet discipline. After Laschet’s failed chancellor candidacy, it took a long time before the NRW-CDU decided in favor of Wüst, until the reservations that he was too conservative, too provincial, a political lightweight gave way to general approval.
Many fortunate circumstances paved the way to the state chancellery. But Wüst did not fall into his lap: he used the time of indecisiveness within the party for clever networking and expanded his support in the party and parliamentary group.
Wüst’s greatest stroke of luck in autumn 2021 is the NRW constitution: “The state parliament elects the prime minister from among its members,” it says. Wüst has the necessary parliamentary mandate – in contrast to his biggest competition, NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul, a Laschet confidant, and Multiministerin Ina Scharrenbach, who is responsible for home, municipal, building and equality.
Adventurous interim solutions were rumored in the hallways of the Düsseldorf state parliament. Only the lost federal election, the Laschet-Söder debacle and the open leadership question in the federal CDU gave the last push: In NRW, the ranks closed behind Wüst.
The MPK chair
Fortuna gave the young Prime Minister the very big stage – as the regular Chairman of the Prime Ministers’ Conference (MPK). That catapulted him straight into orbit of nationwide fame.
Good for Wüst: Hardly any indiscretions were leaked from the rounds of country heads, which were often tormenting during the pandemic. Except for a slander from Chancellor Olaf Scholz: “Amateur in Prime Minister’s costume” he is said to have called him.
Rhede – origin, homeland, support
He was born on July 19, 1975 in Rhede in western Münsterland. He still lives here with his wife Katharina and his daughter Philippa, who was born in 2021. He stayed close to his homeland for his law studies and went to Münster. He became city councilor in Rhede. At the age of 25 he got his first top office as JU state chairman. Wüst made a name for himself with strictly conservative theses and even gave an interview to the weekly newspaper “Junge Freiheit”.
Even then, the newspaper was considered the mouthpiece of the “New Right”. In it, Wüst demanded that it “become fashionable again in the bourgeois camp to profess allegiance to Germany.” He himself is proud to be German. In the 2005 state elections, he ran for the first time as a direct candidate in the Borken I constituency, a conservative stronghold. He was the youngest member of parliament at the time.
Steep climb and sudden fall
And the rise became even steeper: in 2006, Wüst was elected Secretary General of the largest CDU state association. The 30-year-old took over the job in difficult waters, his predecessor Hans-Joachim Reck had given up annoyed. There was talk of bullying and small wars in the state chancellery of the then Prime Minister Jürgen Rüttgers.
In the years that followed, General Secretary Wüst developed an edgy reputation as a “dashing law-and-order politician” (“SZ”), as a “hard-nosed calf biter” (“FAZ”) and as “Rüttgers’ man for the rough stuff” (” The time”). He polarized with his bold demeanor and his campaigns against the SPD and its hopeful Hannelore Kraft.
Then came the deep fall with the “Rent-a-Rüttgers” affair: the party had campaigned for companies to present themselves at their state party conference. Conversations with the prime minister could be booked for an extra charge. Wüst resigned as Secretary General in February 2010, a few months before the state elections. He was unable to prevent Rüttger from being voted out of office, and Hannelore Kraft became prime minister.
The lobbyist
Despite the affair and resignation, Wüst regained the direct mandate in May 2010 and became economic policy spokesman for his parliamentary group. In 2013 he took over the state chairmanship of the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT) in North Rhine-Westphalia, an influential sub-organization of the party. And in the coming years he still had time for several jobs as managing director at media associations such as the newspaper publishers’ association of North Rhine-Westphalia.
During this time, Wüst developed a new, smart image, which he still maintains today. Now he was of exquisite friendliness, attentive, courteous. He smiled a lot, listening patiently. But what was Wüst thinking? You couldn’t read it on his face.
The Minister of Transport
In 2017 came the political comeback as NRW Minister of Transport. It was burdened with Laschet’s full-bodied election promises to massively reduce traffic jams in densely populated North Rhine-Westphalia. But Wüst interpreted the burden as an opportunity. In the podcast “Wirtschaft aktuell” he said at the beginning of 2021: “After 30 years of investing in the East, it was the West’s turn again.” The federal and state governments have “provided plenty of money, financed for years to come, including in the future.” This is also thanks to his predecessor Michael Groschek (SPD).
And how did Wüst do as Transport Minister? Of the WDR and infratest dimap asked in the NRW-Trend 2017 and 2022 before the state elections which party in the field of transport was best at solving the tasks. The CDU falls by 14 percentage points and ends up in second place behind the Greens.
The master of both-and
Rhetorically, Wüst is extremely agile: within just three sentences, he manages to both defend a decision and put it to the test. For example in one ARD interview on Corona policy in November 2021. It was about the upcoming Bundesliga derby between Cologne and Mönchengladbach in front of 50,000 spectators – despite the high number of infections.
“We decided this week,” said Wüst, “that 2G applies everywhere in the leisure sector, even in a stadium, in the fresh air. I think that’s an appropriate decision given the situation in North Rhine-Westphalia. But it’s right, that we always have to put to the test what the appropriate responses are in the pandemic.”
After the game, whose pictures of a cheering crowd caused a stir across Germany, Wüst said decisively: “There must be no more pictures like the ones in Cologne.”
In interviews, Wüst repeatedly avoids the rough seas of concrete definitions and prefers to steer into the calm waters of both-and.
“Mallorca Gate”, a resignation, an open question
But the method of non-determination has limits. For long stretches, the election campaign in NRW is characterized by “Mallorca-Gate”: Ursula Heinen-Esser, as Environment Minister, continued her vacation in Mallorca immediately after the flood disaster in mid-July 2021. Longer than initially stated. And celebrated her husband’s birthday there with other cabinet members. When all of this became known bit by bit, waves of indignation rose – and carried Heinen-Esser out of office. The insight to resign was probably promoted by Wüst. When asked when he knew what, he answered evasively.
If Wüst wins the state elections on May 15, it will also massively strengthen his position in the federal CDU. Friedrich Merz, the man from the Sauerland, will follow the “small federal election” closely with a view to his own position. And Markus Söder will also be looking forward to Düsseldorf. Wüst, Merz, Söder – they can all serve the same conservative profile.