Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The new black-green state cabinet of North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) met for the first time on Thursday. The location for the historical moment was the Düsseldorf Ständehaus, which was once the seat of the state parliament and today houses the K 21 art museum. Immediately afterwards, the state secretaries received their certificates of appointment.
The six ministers from the CDU and Greens were appointed on Wednesday and sworn in in the state parliament. The new cabinet is significantly younger and more feminine than the black and yellow one before. According to the State Chancellery, the average age has fallen by 8.5 years to 50 years. In addition, there have never been so many women ministers in a North Rhine-Westphalian cabinet, a spokesman said. Only the first cabinet of ex-head of government Hannelore Kraft (SPD) had previously been equally occupied - if you count them yourself.
The new school minister, Dorothee Feller (CDU), who has taken over a department that has been viewed particularly critically, announced that she would roll up her sleeves straight away: "The work starts today," she said. "School is one of the most important stages in everyone's life," emphasized the 56-year-old, who was previously the district president of Münster. "I am aware of the great responsibility of this office."
In the coming weeks it will be important to prepare the schools in North Rhine-Westphalia well for the start of the new school year. "The pandemic and the consequences of the war of aggression against Ukraine will continue to challenge us," Feller said.
"We want to support and relieve our schools in the coming years so that they can take full care of our students." The first pegs were struck with the coalition agreement with 10,000 additional teachers by the end of the 2027 election period and the gradual, cross-school level harmonization of the starting salary for everyone.
