Around three months before the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, both the CDU and the SPD nominated their top candidates on Saturday.

At a CDU delegates' meeting held in attendance in Essen, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, received 99.1 percent of the votes.

Wüst, who has only been CDU state chairman and prime minister since October, spoke of a “super strong result” to the cheers of the delegates, while young party members waved banners with the turquoise-green inscription “Team Wüst”.

With a view to the state elections on May 15, Wüst called out to the delegates: "We'll rock this thing."

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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A few minutes earlier, opposition leader Thomas Kutschaty received 96.8 percent of the delegate votes at a hybrid SPD party conference in Werne.

"It's a dream result," said Kuchaty to the cameras of a television studio.

"Now I'm hot too, now I want to campaign with you to convince people in North Rhine-Westphalia."

In his application speech, the 53-year-old Social Democrat from Essen, who was Minister of Justice in Düsseldorf from 2010 to 2017 during the red-green government, promised a comprehensive “social restart” for “the many, not just the few”.

Among other things, Kuchaty promised the abolition of daycare fees for all parents in the country, free local public transport for children, the construction of 25,000 publicly funded apartments annually and the establishment of a billion-dollar innovation fund to convert the industry to be climate-neutral.

NRW is the industrial state in Germany and therefore has the most to lose in the transformation.

"But we can also win the most if we are the first to succeed in becoming the market leader." There will only be a "real leap" with the Social Democrats.

“I will make it a top priority again”

Kuchaty took the black and yellow state government’s corona school policy to court.

In a state government led by Social Democrats, there will be “no more e-mails on Friday afternoons, no more e-mail raids late in the evening and no more escape from responsibility” from the Ministry of Education.

Prime Minister Wüst accused Kuchaty of being afraid of school politics and unloading the problems on the school minister.

That will not be the case with him.

"I'll make it a top priority again."

He wants to become Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia.

"We want to replace this black and yellow state government." In the most populous federal state, the SPD is back again.

In the polls, the CDU and SPD were recently close together.

In the most recent survey by the Forsa institute, the CDU was able to push ahead of the SPD (27 percent) with 29 percent for the first time in months.

In addition, Wüst received significantly better approval ratings than his SPD challenger Kuchaty.

In his speech, Wüst rated the demoscopic findings as a tailwind for his party and himself.

In October - i.e. after the devastating defeat of the Union in the federal elections - the state CDU was up to 13 percentage points behind in polls.

This deficit has already been made up, said the CDU top candidate from Rhede in Westphalia, who drew his self-confident government balance sheet.

"We can be expected again."

When red and green were replaced in 2017, North Rhine-Westphalia took the bottom spots on many issues.

"The mood was very low." Thanks to the black and yellow government work, North Rhine-Westphalia quickly got rid of the "red lantern" in economic dynamics. For the first time in 30 years, it was possible to set up state budgets in NRW without new debt.

Thanks to the zero-tolerance policy of Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) and 12,000 new police officers, the country has become safer than it was five years ago.

"It makes a difference whether we govern," Wüst called out to the delegates.

"We have achieved a lot since 2017, but there is still a lot to do."

Unlike Kuchaty, the 46-year-old libertine has no intention of throwing himself directly into the turmoil of the election campaign.

Rather, the CDU's top candidate in Essen announced "a short but all the more intensive election campaign after Easter".

"People in North Rhine-Westphalia expect us to get them out of the pandemic," said Wüst.

"They have no understanding for election campaigns these weeks."

While the SPD wanted to pass a government program entitled "Our country of tomorrow" on Saturday, the CDU wants to discuss ideas and suggestions with its members in digital topic forums in the coming weeks.

Only then will the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU present its program.