Union candidate for chancellor: Laschets people | tagesschau.de

Pullers, spin doctors, communities of convenience: Who are the people who work in the background for Chancellor candidate Laschet? Who can he rely on – and why?

Armin Laschet wants to become Federal Chancellor in September. The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister and CDU chairman has a small but close circle of employees and confidants, some of whom have been with him for years.

Nathanael Liminski

A name is always mentioned in this context. The only 35-year-old head of the State Chancellery, Nathanael Liminski, is Laschet’s most important companion in recent years. Since he joined the CDU parliamentary group in 2014 and took charge of the opposition as managing director, he has been the linchpin of his political craft for Laschet. Liminski ordered and organized on behalf of the then parliamentary group leader Laschet. He made sure that his boss, who at times acted more like a political improviser, was given a reliable structure.

Suddenly observers could see Laschet in the hall of the state parliament with files under his arm, a sight that some had to get used to. To this day, Liminski is optionally head organizer, puller, spin doctor. He sorts out the complex government business, but also for him, as is often heard in Düsseldorf, the day only has 24 hours. “Liminski can’t be everywhere,” they say, especially when something goes wrong in government operations. There may be a little too much awe, but it is true that pretty much all the important things run over Liminski’s table.

In the pandemic or in larger political projects such as the decision to phase out lignite, it is Liminski who explains the policy, presents details and patiently explains it in background meetings with journalists. He always appears calm and considered, is friendly and courteous. That he also knows how to slip into the role of the disciplinarian can be deduced from the stories told by members of the state cabinet. But you hardly hear anyone talking badly about him in Düsseldorf.

A double with similarities

Unlike Laschet, Liminski is considered conservative. He is one of ten children of the recently deceased publicist Jürgen Liminski. The fact that the father was a member of the Catholic community Opus Dei and also wrote for right-wing newspapers like “Junge Freiheit” serves as evidence of the son’s alleged backwardness in social media. Occasionally Nathanael Liminski catches up with his own past as a co-founder of the Pope-loyal initiative “Generation Benedikt”. But that was a long time ago and is hardly suitable for assessing the current head of the State Chancellery. There are no recent statements that would result in an extremely conservative view of the world.

Laschet and Liminski are a rather unequal double, but they have one thing in common: their sense of humor. You like to laugh and often, certainly at yourself, and sometimes at others. This could be observed, for example, in a session of the state parliament, when the SPD opposition leader made a very apt joke at the lectern at the expense of the CDU Justice Minister who was present. Like two schoolboys, Laschet and Liminski shook each other with laughter on the government bench and could hardly contain themselves.

No matter who you speak to in the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU or in political Düsseldorf these days: Nobody doubts that Liminski Laschet would follow to Berlin. As head of the Federal Chancellery, maybe. In Berlin, however, it should not be as easy as making his right-hand man head of the State Chancellery in Düsseldorf, even if it is successful.

Paul Ziemiak

Speaking of Berlin: Anyone who wants to go to the Chancellery from Düsseldorf needs political outposts in the federal capital. Confidants who keep their eyes and ears open. Paul Ziemiak, the general secretary of the CDU, also comes from North Rhine-Westphalia, he and Liminski have known each other very well for a long time. The Iserlohner is even the godfather of one of the Liminski’s children. Since Laschet has been at the head of the CDU, Ziemiak has become an important figure for him, despite his only 35 years. He runs the CDU headquarters, organizes the election campaign and, when he cannot be in Berlin himself, has his back free.

The two are less united by a male friendship, they form a political community of convenience. Laschet wants to become chancellor, for that he needs a functioning apparatus. If the plan works with the help of Ziemiak and the Adenauerhaus, the Secretary General should recommend himself for higher tasks. A first taste of his organizational talent, at least that’s how many in the CDU see it, was the smooth running of the first digital federal party conference in January, at which Laschet was able to prevail against competitors Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen.

Mark Speicher

Mark Speich, State Secretary and Head of the NRW State Representation in Berlin, also works in the political center of the republic. Listening to the finer tones behind the scenes is how he describes his job. Establishing contacts, especially on an international level, is one of the tasks of the smart political scientist, who always formulates carefully and ready for printing. The then Integration Minister Laschet got to know him when he was working for the Vodafone Foundation (motto: “Rethinking education”). The two found each other over the topic. Speicher, who is also officially responsible for the Prime Minister’s international relations, accompanied his boss on trips abroad to Israel and to the Pope in Rome.

France takes a special look: Speicher takes care of the tasks that Prime Minister Laschet has in his role as cultural representative of the federal states for Franco-German relations. When Laschet meets the President of the Regional Council of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, in his hometown Aachen, as he did recently, Speich is there. It is about more than an exchange between a regional politician from France and a country leader from Germany. Bertrand is hoping for the presidential elections in the neighboring country next year, Laschet also has big plans. A high-profile meeting cannot do any harm.

Katrin Kohl

Laschet’s long-time office manager, Katrin Kohl, is less well-known, but extremely important. She has been with him for years, can often be seen at his side and now helps him not to lose track of the countless obligations. The department head in the State Chancellery always stays in the background. In the state parliament, one can observe how the petite government employee carries stacks of signature folders after her boss. Kohl is considered to be extremely hardworking, and she is also said to have a great capacity for suffering. This alludes to the sometimes chaotic way of working of your boss, which regularly puts the nerves of his immediate environment to the test.

Herbert Reul

Anyone who asks about Laschet’s most important political supporters hears the name again and again Peter Hintze. The former CDU General Secretary and Vice President of the Bundestag died in 2016 and was until then the closest supporter and confidante of the Aachen resident. There is still no comparable political friend to this day. Laschet’s relationship to Herbert Reul, State interior minister and CDU veteran, has seen better days. Reul, who is also district chairman of the CDU in the Bergisches Land, has always supported Laschet, but his own ambitions to inherit the candidate for chancellor as chairman of the CDU are currently causing headaches for many in the party.

At almost 70 years of age, Reul would not stand for departure, which could become a burden with a view to the upcoming state elections in 2022. In the ranks of the Christian Democrats on the Rhine and Ruhr, it is said that Laschet now has to gently teach his popular interior minister that. Otherwise he runs the risk of open conflicts in the largest regional association after his departure and catching up with him even in distant Berlin.

How much of Merkel’s policy does the CDU leader and candidate for chancellor want to continue? Where does he set new accents? A conversation with Armin Laschet is the prelude to the ARD summer interviews for the Report from Berlin. The interview and the interactive question format Ask yourself! can be seen from 4.20 p.m. in the live stream at tagesschau.de.