Berlin When Hendrik Wüst entered the Liberal parliamentary group on Wednesday, there was long applause for the CDU politician and designated successor to Armin Laschet in the office of Prime Minister. The signal was all the more important for the native Rhederer as the CDU and FDP govern the largest state of North Rhine-Westphalia with just one vote in the state parliament.
“This majority has worked together well and trustingly for the past four and a half years and has always brought majorities in the state parliament. That will work here, too, ”said Wüst hopefully and heard the hint from FDP parliamentary group leader Christof Rasche that“ of course ”all 28 FDP members would vote for Wüst.
Formerly brisk and, as General Secretary under Jürgen Rüttgers, downright brutal, which earned him his resignation, the conservative Catholic is now considered the new number one of the largest state association of the CDU.
The current head of the SME Union as well as the new head of government will be the chairman. The head of the workers’ wing, Dennis Radtke, also trusts the 46-year-old to “position and strengthen the CDU as a people’s party in the middle”.
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The last deciding factor for the passionate hunter is likely to have been the disastrous federal election. Anyone who still had doubts that in times of social media awareness and, ideally, an official bonus are essential in order to survive targeted false reports and the resulting scorn and ridicule, was convinced after Laschet’s experience in the federal government: The choice had to fall on Transport Minister Wüst .
Because his rival, Building Minister Ina Scharrenbach, is not a member of the state parliament – a mandatory requirement for becoming Prime Minister if Laschet makes his office constitutionally available on October 26th with the constitution of the Bundestag.
There should have been an interim solution for Scharrenbach. But since the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia only got 26 percent in view of the downward pull, there should be no risk. With the official bonus, they think it is realistic in the Wüst camp to get 30 percent of the vote in the state elections in May 2022 and thus to provide the government again.
Like Laschet, Wüst stands for the reduction of bureaucracy
Wüst represents the Münsterland constituency of Borken I in the state parliament and, like probably no other member of the government, stands for the embassy of Laschet to unleash and to purify planning and approval procedures. When in doubt, the lawyer knows what he is talking about.
After years in which North Rhine-Westphalia cut planning staff and even had to return federal funds for road projects to the federal government because they could no longer be built, the government under Wüst hired staff again to remove this bottleneck in the procedures.
Although the grand coalition in the federal government passed four laws for faster planning, they did not go far enough for the Düsseldorf minister. He called them “triple steps” and called for environmental impact assessments to be stipulated for replacement new buildings on federal highways only if a significant redesign is associated with the new building.
In addition, several partial orders should be bundled in awarding procedures and thus entire construction processes should be accelerated, and when electrifying railway lines, environmental assessments should only be necessary if the length of the route is 50 kilometers or more.
“He accelerated everything”, praised the coalition partner Thomas Nückel from the FDP, chairman of the transport committee. If there are complaints about traffic jams, this is due to the many construction works. He praises the fact that Wüst tries to solve problems immediately. In the meantime, train driver apprentices no longer have to pay for their training alone. Finally, all transport associations are finally jointly developing a uniform digital ticket for the state. “The e-ticket is to be implemented at the beginning of 2022,” says Nückel.
His greeting in the letter: “Wüst greets!”
Wüst tried to set the pace (letter formula: “Wüst greets!”), Which was shown, for example, during the flood disaster. By decree, he suspended rules for approval procedures so that roads and bridges could be rebuilt quickly.
Environmental compatibility, species protection, property rights? All irrelevant when it came to “constructive adjustments to the road or the bridge structure”. 85 percent of the closed roads are “drivable again, under construction or under contract,” his ministry reported with satisfaction a few weeks ago.
On the other hand, criticism comes from environmental associations. The decree was a mistake, said BUND country manager Dirk Jansen. Before the flood, floodplains were built on and risk maps were ignored. The government made the sealing easier. “Anyone who continues such a policy is jointly responsible for all the damage caused by climate change that threatens us in the future.”
At least Wüst doesn’t just rely on the car. He also promotes local transport, whereby he primarily sees the federal government as responsible for the financing and also argues with the budgetary politicians of the CDU in the federal government.
Wüst, who rides his bike himself, knows how much still needs to be done on the bike paths. With more than 700 kilometers, he built far more than the last government under red-green. But in the state capital, for example, he experiences this himself, you have to know “secret routes” far from the main roads in order to get to your destination safely. After all, he drives home to Münsterland by car.
More: Transport Minister Hendrik Wüst is to become the new Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia