Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - Thorsten Schick will lead the CDU parliamentary group in the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament. The parliamentary group elected the 50-year-old business graduate from Iserlohn on Wednesday evening with 94.4 percent of the votes as its chairman, as a parliamentary group spokeswoman said. Schick received 68 votes in favour, two against and two abstentions.
He was previously deputy leader of the parliamentary group and chairman of the committee for digitization and innovation. Schick has been a member of the state parliament since 2012 and was a member of the state parliament from 2005 to 2010. CDU state party leader and Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst made use of his right to propose and proposed Schick for the post of parliamentary group leader.
Schick follows Bodo Löttgen at the head of the CDU parliamentary group. Löttgen had previously announced that he would not run for office again in the new electoral term. The 63-year-old former detective inspector justified his decision with personal burdens after several deaths in the family.
Ina Scharrenbach was also present at the election. According to the parliamentary group, the Minister for Homeland, Municipal Affairs, Construction and Digitization has subsequently moved into the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament. In May, Scharrenbach lost in the state elections in the Unna II constituency to former Labor and Social Affairs Minister Rainer Schmeltzer of the SPD. Because the Paderborn CDU MP Daniel Sieveke is changing as state secretary in Scharrenbach's ministry, a mandate has become vacant.
The "Rheinische Post" (online) had previously reported on Scharrenbach's mandate in the state parliament.
