Berlin, Recklinghausen Thomas Kutschaty (SPD) is standing in a biomass cogeneration plant from Ökotech in Recklinghausen on Wednesday of this week. On the site of a former colliery, the company uses waste wood to generate electricity. Kuchaty walks across the site in a yellow helmet and vest. He comes across as a silent observer who occasionally asks a few questions.
How many more plants like this could be built in NRW? How much fuel is available? At the end of his visit, Kuchaty was impressed. “If you can theoretically supply an entire city like Recklinghausen with electricity from this power plant, then that’s a great achievement.”
Kuchaty also wants to do a great job on Sunday. The 53-year-old lawyer wants to win back the Düsseldorf State Chancellery for the SPD from the CDU and become the new Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. And the chances are not bad.
According to surveys, the SPD in NRW is threatening to get the worst result in its history with just under 30 percent. Because the Greens are strong at the same time, it could just about be enough for a red-green coalition.
And if not, the traffic light would still be an option. So who is the man who could soon rule the most populous state and thus become one of the most powerful politicians in the whole country?
For Kuchaty there is still a historic chance on Sunday. For a long time, the ailing state of the SPD in its “heart chamber” in North Rhine-Westphalia symbolized the decline of the German social democrats. Even the Greens had meanwhile surpassed the SPD in polls in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The former justice minister wants to become the new prime minister in North Rhine-Westphalia.
(Photo: IMAGO/Marc John)
But the signs have long since reversed. The SPD now provides the chancellor. The comrades on the Rhine and Ruhr are again clearly ahead of the Greens in polls. And in this election they are not fighting against Armin Laschet, but against Hendrik Wüst, who is quite new in office and has not yet been able to slip into the role of the father of the country.
The fact that Kutschaty, as leader of the opposition, is struggling to be even less well-known than Wüst is quickly brushed aside by the SPD’s top candidate. “I don’t have a deficit,” he says. “The Prime Minister has the problem of notoriety, but especially popularity.” In the direct election comparison, Wüst was only just ahead of him.
Kuschaty is, even if he appears quietly in the biomass plant in Recklinghausen, more of a loud-sounding type. “We had every chance. They didn’t use any of them,” he accuses Wüst. The SPD politician often does not even mention Wüst by name, but speaks of “the candidate of the CDU”. Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann had to listen to Kuschaty being “snotty and arrogant”.
You can tell from these words: Kuchaty is a child of the Ruhr area. Born in 1968 into a family of railway workers, he grew up in a council flat with a coal stove in Essen-Borbeck. He was the first in his family to graduate from high school, studied law and became a lawyer. But he quickly noticed: “At some point, the application of law no longer helps, but I have to change the law in order to be able to tackle something.”
Kuschaty became active in the SPD, and in 2010 Hannelore Kraft (SPD) appointed him Minister of Justice. Those who mean well by him say he managed to steer the department out of the negative headlines. Others say Kuchaty has managed to barely attract attention in seven years.
The party left on the road to success
After the election defeat in 2017, Kutschaty used the reorganization of the NRW-SPD to profile as a party leftist. He drummed against Hartz IV, for a wealth tax, against the grand coalition. In his national association he was surprisingly successful with this course. First, four years ago, he won a contested vote for the chairmanship of the state parliamentary group, and then in the spring of 2021 a power struggle for the SPD state chairmanship.
Since Kuschaty has been the undisputed number one, the NRW SPD has closed again. This already paid off in the general election. With a result of 29.1 percent, the NRW-SPD was again the strongest force and was instrumental in Olaf Scholz moving into the chancellor’s office. For which Scholz thanks Kuchaty with campaign appearances, for example at the final rally this Friday.
>>Read also: All questions and answers about the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia
In Berlin, however, many comrades are strangers to the man from the pot. A comrade says that the fact that he was initially a declared opponent of Scholz, but is now campaigning for the chancellor with his “close connection” to the chancellor, is not very credible.
Especially since, due to the history of the two, many have doubts that the line is really that short. CDU members in NRW blaspheme that Kuchaty does not even have Scholz’ cell phone number, but has to be put through to his anteroom.
The North Rhine-Westphalia SPD played a key role in Olaf Scholz moving into the chancellery. For which Scholz thanks Kuchaty with campaign appearances.
(Photo: IMAGO/Rene Traut)
In addition, many party friends have doubts as to whether Kuchaty fits into the shoes of Johannes Rau or even just Peer Steinbrück. When Kuschaty signaled in 2019 that he might run for party chairmanship of the federal SPD, many in the party were appalled. A high-ranking SPD government representative put it quite clearly: “If we had a really good candidate in North Rhine-Westphalia, victory there could not be taken away from us.”
Political scientists are also critical of the SPD candidate. “I can hardly imagine Mr. Kutschaty as a beacon of hope for the SPD at the moment,” said Bremen politics professor Lothar Probst. “He’s not only too unknown for that, but hasn’t shown the format that would be necessary to gain a profile beyond NRW.” Kuchaty and his supporters leave this skepticism cold. The former Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hannelore Kraft, was also grossly underestimated at first. And then to win big elections.
More: The live blog for the NRW election