The negotiations are on the home stretch and the optimism among the CDU and Greens in NRW is correspondingly high. In just a few weeks, both will be well on the way to forming a joint coalition. Party congresses are to give the green light in two weeks.
Almost a month and a half after the state elections, the first black-green government alliance in North Rhine-Westphalia should be in place within the next two weeks. The CDU and the Greens want their coalition agreement to be approved at party conferences on June 25, and Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst is then to be re-elected in the state parliament on June 28, as both parties announced. The CDU and the Greens only entered the coalition negotiations at the end of May. 13 specialist working groups are currently working on the coalition agreement. The basis is a comprehensive twelve-page exploratory paper.
“Two weeks of open, intensive and, above all, constructive talks with the tailwind of a detailed exploratory result have shown that there is a good and sustainable basis for a successful conclusion of the coalition talks between the CDU and the Greens,” said Wüst. “We have many goals, but of course we still have intensive days of working together ahead of us.” In the “reconciliation of supposed opposites” lies an opportunity for both partners and for the country.
Green Party leader Mona Neubaur said: “North Rhine-Westphalia is facing major challenges that require sustainable answers.” In the past few weeks, the CDU and the Greens have agreed that these answers “require new alliances and alliances.” A socially just and climate-neutral transformation of our society requires “that we overcome old rifts and historically grown camps”.
The parliamentary groups of the CDU and Greens want to ask the President of the State Parliament to postpone the plenary session originally planned from June 22nd to 24th by almost a week (June 28th to 30th) due to the planned election of the Prime Minister.
In the state elections on May 15, the CDU emerged as the clear winner with 35.7 percent. The SPD, on the other hand, slipped to 26.7 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. So far, the federal state has been governed by the CDU and FDP.
