It went well again – at least for the CDU.

Despite the devastating top candidacy of North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Armin Laschet in the federal elections and the "Mallorca Gate", the Union did not fall into the mountains, but (only) increased in percentage compared to 2017.

The SPD had evidently not yet reached the low point of its reputation in the last state election.

With a modest offer of personnel, five years of unimaginative opposition and months of erratic government in the federal government, she did not offer herself in Düsseldorf as a projection surface for hope for better times.

But with all due respect for the skill of the CDU's top candidate Hendrik Wüst, who has only recently been in charge of the country's most populous country: it is bold to interpret the gain as a government order, not only in view of the dramatic drop in voter turnout.

According to the projections, it does not seem possible for the SPD and the Greens to govern together.

The Social Democrats are too weak for that.

But even the coalition of Union and FDP no longer has a majority.

This is not only due to a school policy that has gone wrong, as it was the fate of the Greens and now the Free Democrats.

The second fall from government responsibility within a week proves that Lindner's mantra "it is better not to govern than badly" falls short.

The party is caught in a paradox, both at federal and state level: if it doesn't govern, it can hope for votes; if it governs, it is threatened with immediate loss of power.

For the FDP, it is no longer just the pull that emanates from the CDU in the event of a head-to-head race with the SPD that is dangerous.

It is significant that the Greens occupy two federal departments, the Foreign Ministry and the Economics Ministry, which have been identity-forming for the Free Democrats for decades.

In addition, many Greens have understood that elections are won in the political center.

The euphoria of a party that claims to be ecologically left-liberal is unlikely to come to an end with the successes in Kiel and now on the Rhine.