State Parliament President André Kuper presented the future member of the Bundestag with his certificate of termination of office. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the state parliament of the German press agency.
Laschet initially remains in office as a manager. As soon as the new Bundestag is constituted on Tuesday, its deputy, NRW Family Minister Joachim Stamp (FDP), will take over the management of the official business for probably one day. On Wednesday, Hendrik Wüst (CDU) will be elected as the new Prime Minister in a special session of the state parliament.
The sequence of events is largely determined by the state constitution. A member of the Bundestag cannot be a member of the government in North Rhine-Westphalia at the same time. Therefore, Laschet finally resigns as Prime Minister the moment he accepts his mandate in Berlin. He is still allowed to be a simple member of the Düsseldorf state parliament. For an expected short time, Laschet will be a member of the state parliament and the Bundestag.
According to the CDU parliamentary group, Laschet wants to return to Düsseldorf from Berlin on Wednesday in order to cast his vote for Hendrik Wüst in his role as a member of the state parliament at the planned special session. The black-yellow coalition only has one vote majority in the state parliament – so it depends on each member.
Laschet, who ran as the Union’s candidate for chancellor this year, had already declared before the federal election that he would not return to North Rhine-Westphalia if it failed.