Bonn (dpa/lnw) - The North Rhine-Westphalian CDU chairman and Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst thanked his party on Saturday at a party conference in Bonn for the unexpected victory in the state elections in May. When he was elected 245 days ago to succeed Armin Laschet as head of the largest CDU state association, the party was still up to 13 points behind the SPD, said Wüst. Hardly anyone believed the party was capable of the first re-election of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia for 60 years.
Despite severe setbacks - such as the resignation of the environment minister in the hot phase of the election campaign - the CDU was not thrown off course. "Thank you for making a nine-point lead from a deficit of 13 percentage points," he said in front of around 640 delegates, who greeted him with cheers and rhythmic clapping.
Party conferences of the CDU and the Greens will vote on the first black-green coalition agreement on Saturday. If the base approves the work as expected, Wüst - currently still head of a black-yellow government - could be re-elected prime minister on Tuesday in the Düsseldorf state parliament with a black-green majority.
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). So far, NRW has been governed by the CDU and FDP. The Free Democrats had halved their election result to 5.9 percent. Black and yellow could therefore no longer govern.
