A good two weeks after the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the CDU and the Greens have agreed on the basics of a possible government alliance.

After four days of negotiations, the two delegations presented a detailed exploratory paper entitled "For the future of North Rhine-Westphalia" late on Friday evening.

The twelve-page document, which largely reads like a coalition agreement, is to be the basis on which the extended state executive of the CDU and a small party conference of the Greens will decide on the start of coalition negotiations on Sunday.

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and Green Party leader Mona Neubaur campaigned for the first black-green government to be formed in the most populous federal state.

The two parties were the clear winners in the state elections on May 15 - the CDU had 35.7 percent, the Greens had come to 18.2 percent.

His party "accepts its responsibility from the result of the state election to form a stable government for our country," said CDU state chairman Wüst.

"In the reconciliation of supposed opposites lies the strength for our future."

"Targeted Innovation Offensive"

The prime minister - who has previously ruled with the FDP - thanked the Greens for "constructive, serious advice that was appropriate to the challenges." This common spirit could lead to a future alliance for the benefit of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Neubaur said her party wanted to be the guarantor "that a new state government is working up to date".

The CDU and the Greens could have “worked out a resilient basis together”.

"Both parties are united by the serious will to find generation-fair solutions for the challenges of the present and future in times of multiple crises."

In their exploratory paper, the CDU and the Greens state that the most important common goal is to make North Rhine-Westphalia “the first climate-neutral industrial region in Europe”.

In order to achieve this, they promise a "targeted innovation offensive" to promote small and medium-sized companies, a master plan for the use of geothermal potential, the use of all areas suitable for photovoltaics or the construction of at least 1000 additional wind turbines.

The minimum distance regulation between wind turbines and residential buildings, which was controversial in the election campaign between the CDU and the Greens, is to be examined and changed “if necessary”.

In the future, wind turbines are also to be erected on industrial, commercial and forest areas and forest areas devastated by storm and bark beetles.

According to the exploratory paper, the accelerated expansion of renewable energies is also "of outstanding public interest" for the CDU and Greens because they - as the document says vaguely - want to "stick to" the coal phase-out in 2030.

In fact, according to federal law, the phase-out of coal is currently planned for 2038 at the latest; it can be brought forward to 2035 without compensation.

Whether the CDU and the Greens are aiming to amend the coal phase-out law is not clear from their exploratory paper.

"Basic rights-oriented security policy"

At first glance, several sub-chapters seem to bear a decidedly green handwriting.

In the future, for example, there should be an independent police commissioner in the state parliament or an anti-discrimination agency at state level.

At the same time, the Greens are committed to "more police" - for example to combating organized crime, cybercrime and combating child abuse - which became a strategic crime focus in NRW under Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU).

"We stand for a fundamental rights-oriented security policy and the consistent enforcement of the law," says the exploratory paper.

It is remarkable that another focus of Reul's criminal strategy did not explicitly make it into the document: the fight against clan crime,

which the Greens consider exaggerated.

In fact, not mentioning it means that both sides have agreed to simply maintain Reul's popular course.

The Greens were hardly able to push through any of their (well-known) school policy demands in the exploratory paper.

In their election program, the Greens had committed themselves to the goal of a uniform school and promised to provide schools with “alternatives to the classic grading system”, but there is no mention of this in the document.

Instead, the CDU and Greens are committed to the NRW school peace agreement concluded between the SPD, CDU and Greens in 2011, which basically boils down to the preservation of the structured school system.

Leading Greens had already pointed out during the election campaign that they were aware that the last thing children, students and teachers needed right now was a school structure debate.

Seen in this light, it is no surprise that the black-green exploratory paper now says: "After the challenges of the corona pandemic, pupils, teachers and parents above all need peace and support and our schools need additional relief." On the basis of school peace want CDU and Greens "come to targeted and sustainable improvements" in the "diverse school system in order to create equal opportunities".

Additional funds are to be made available "according to the principle of treating unequals unequally, effectively and according to needs according to a school-specific social index".

According to the exploratory paper, 10