Monday, September 27, 2021
NRW-CDU has to clarify succession
SPD also wins in Laschet’s homeland
Armin Laschet was not even able to convince the voters in his home country: his constituency goes to a Greens, North Rhine-Westphalia to the SPD. It is already sending a declaration of war in the direction of the CDU, because there will be elections again in May.
The SPD became the strongest force in the federal election in North Rhine-Westphalia with 29.1 percent of the second vote. The Federal Returning Officer announced this early in the morning after counting all 64 constituencies. According to the preliminary final result, the CDU has 26 percent of the second vote, the Greens have 16.1 percent. The fourth strongest force is the FDP with 11.4 percent, ahead of the AfD with 7.3 percent. The left fails with 3.7 percent at the five percent hurdle.
Even in the home of Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet it was a defeat for the Union. In the constituency of Aachen I, the Green politician Oliver Krischer won the direct mandate. The long-time member of the Bundestag from Düren received 30.2 percent of the first votes. The 67-year-old CDU health politician Rudolf Henke came up with 25.6 percent.
Laschet himself did not run for a direct mandate, but wants to move into the Bundestag via the CDU’s North Rhine-Westphalian state list. Despite the defeat of his party, he wants to try to form a Union-led government as Chancellor. Laschet had also announced that he wanted to stay in Berlin regardless of the election result.
SPD feels the tailwind
The search for a successor begins for the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia. As early as May, the people in Germany’s most populous federal state were called up to vote again. After doing well in the federal election, the SPD is optimistic that it will also be able to defeat the Union in the state elections. The Social Democrats are the top candidates in the vote with NRW party and parliamentary group leader Thomas Kutschaty. He described the CDU’s worst result in a federal election in NRW as a “clear vote of no confidence for four weak CDU years in NRW”.
How long the clarification process within the NRW CDU will take is not foreseeable. The district associations can submit candidate proposals for the state chairmanship until October 18. On October 23, a state party conference in Bielefeld is to decide who will succeed Armin Laschet as CDU state chief. From party circles it is said that it is likely that Laschet will also resign as Prime Minister in the days around the party congress. Laschet would also have to declare by October 26th at the latest whether he would accept his parliamentary mandate, should he receive one. This day is the last possible date for the newly elected parliament to meet for its constituent session.