Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) – The first black-green coalition agreement in North Rhine-Westphalia has been sealed: On Monday, the leaders of the CDU and Greens signed the coalition agreement approved by both parties at the weekend. The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and CDU chairman Hendrik Wüst and the state party leader of the Greens, Mona Neubaur, have thus put an end to a good three-week negotiations.
Wüst praised the cooperation and expressed confidence for the next five years. “I have the feeling that it works,” he said in the Düsseldorf artists’ association Malkasten, where negotiations had also taken place. Neubaur also said that a foundation had been created for arguing and working with each other fairly and at eye level in the next few years, black and green had created a common basis so that unforeseeable events would not throw them off course .
A good six weeks after the state elections in the most populous federal state, there is practically nothing standing in the way of Wüst’s re-election this Tuesday in the Düsseldorf state parliament. Together, the CDU and the Greens have 115 out of a total of 195 mandates, which is a comfortable cushion above the required absolute majority. Wüst needs at least 98 votes. The state parliament administration was not aware of any counter-candidates in advance.
For eight months, Wüst was the head of a black and yellow state government. After the Free Democrats had halved their election result to 5.9 percent, black and yellow could no longer govern. On Wednesday, the last act of forming a government will take place with the presentation and swearing-in of the black-green cabinet.
In their 146-page coalition agreement, the CDU and the Greens pledge to make North Rhine-Westphalia “the first climate-neutral industrial region in Europe” by the end of the 2017 election period. By then, at least 1,000 new wind turbines are to be erected and a solar obligation for new buildings and later for existing buildings to be introduced step by step. The coal exit by 2030 is maintained.
There should be no new debates about the best types of schools in schools. Instead, 10,000 additional teachers are to improve the teaching and support of the children. A nationwide express bus network is intended to better connect people in rural areas in particular. Internal security is to be strengthened with 3,000 new police officers hired each year.
The venue for the signing of the coalition agreement was once again the Düsseldorf art association Malkasten. Here, Wüst and Neubaur drafted the “Future Contract for North Rhine-Westphalia” with a total of 140 negotiators on both sides.
On May 15, the CDU emerged as the clear winner of the state elections in the most populous federal state with 35.7 percent. The Greens were able to almost triple their share of the vote compared to 2017 to 18.2 percent and ended up in third place behind the SPD (26.7).
