Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - Henning Höne wants to apply as the new head of the FDP in North Rhine-Westphalia and inherit the still chairman Joachim Stamp. The German Press Agency learned this from party circles. As a member of the state board, Höne himself invited to a press conference at short notice on Friday afternoon.
Topic according to the invitation: "On the future of the Free Democrats in North Rhine-Westphalia and the current political situation". It is assumed that Höne will make his ambitions for the party chairmanship public at the press conference. According to dpa information, he had announced his candidacy at a meeting of the party executive on Thursday evening.
On Thursday, Stamp informed the FDP members in the state by email that he would not be standing for re-election in the state executive election next January. The 52-year-old has been state chairman of the NRW-FDP since 2017 and was the top candidate for the state elections in which his party halved its result to 5.9 percent in May (2017: 12.6 percent). The black-yellow coalition could not continue to govern.
Höne has been the leader of the FDP parliamentary group in the state parliament since this year. In party circles, it is considered sensible that the parliamentary group and party chair should be in one hand.
