Hendrik Wüst and Mona Neubaur actually wanted to present the contract for the first black-green state government in North Rhine-Westphalia on Wednesday.

The thirteen negotiating groups had made progress remarkably quickly and discreetly since the end of May.

But for the last open details, the five final negotiators from both parties needed a few hours longer than expected.

The CDU and Greens were only able to announce on Thursday morning around two o'clock: The contract is in place.

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

  • Follow I follow

Eleven hours later, Minister-President Wüst (CDU) and leader of the Green Party, Neubaur, presented the contract entitled "Future Contract for North Rhine-Westphalia" in the garden of the Düsseldorf artists' association "Malkasten".

The two praise the 146-page paper in detail as a good foundation for five years of government work.

In the negotiations, it was possible to "reconcile supposed opposites and create something good," says the Prime Minister.

"This work carries content"

Neubaur raves about the confidential work, "from which trust has already arisen".

The most populous federal state will become more socially just, ecological, digital and economically stronger and, above all, will become the “first climate-neutral industrial region in Europe”, emphasize Neubaur and Wüst in unison.

“This work carries content, but above all personally.

And that will be important, because there will be challenges that are not even foreseeable today," says Wüst.

Neubaur later gave an example by pointing out that shortly before that, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) had called for the second stage of the gas emergency plan because of the reduced deliveries from Russia.

It is hard to imagine what this will mean not only for private consumers, but also for the industry in NRW, which is highly dependent on gas.

In their coalition agreement, the CDU and the Greens pledge that, together with the federal government, they will guarantee security of energy supply "at all times".

"Until the phase-out, lignite will make its contribution in view of the Ukraine war," the paper says.

Nevertheless, the two parties want to stick to bringing forward the end of lignite-fired power generation to 2030 - a green matter of the heart, to which CDU man Wüst had already expressly committed himself in the autumn.

According to reports, the two parties no longer had to fight about the matter for a long time.

Together, the CDU and the Greens want to drive the energy transition forward - among other things with a gradual introduction of photovoltaics, first for commercial and from the beginning of 2025 also for private new buildings.

In addition, Black-Green wants to create the conditions for at least a thousand wind turbines to be installed by the end of the legislative period.

Wüst says that NRW will become the pioneer of the "Onshore Wind" law by Federal Minister of Economics Habeck.

Public transport is to be “massively” expanded

The CDU state chairman is also presenting another green concern as a joint project: by the end of the decade, local public transport is to be “massively” expanded by at least 60 percent.

When it comes to internal security, Black-Green will be able to continue the course of Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) practically unchanged.

The two parties are now also committed to the Greens' controversial fight against clan crime - which had not yet been mentioned in the exploratory paper.

Nothing is left of the far-reaching school policy reform ideas.

"We don't have any system debates," says Wüst, giving the top priority that "after Corona" "calm and reliability" should return to the schools.

Because of their good election results, it was clear that the Greens would demand a ministry more for themselves than the FDP, which previously ruled with the CDU.

On Thursday, a little surprisingly, Neubaur even announced the planned layout of the four green departments, she herself speaks of "clustering".

In addition to a ministry for the economy, climate protection and industry, transport, the environment and nature conservation are to come together in the second.

In addition, there is the Department of Children, Youth, Family, Gender Equality, Flight and Integration and the Ministry of Justice.

Wüst, on the other hand, does not want to name his "clusters" in detail on Thursday.

However, the coalition agreement stipulates that the CDU will have eight departments, including the finance, interior, school, science and agriculture ministries.

Who gets which post should only be announced after Wüst's re-election as prime minister on Tuesday.

Before that, party conferences have to decide on the contract at the weekend.

The delegates of the CDU meet in Bonn on Saturday.

The party conference of the Greens takes place on Saturday and Sunday in Bielefeld and is supposed to elect a new leadership duo on the occasion.

Because Neubaur – presumably as Minister for Economics, Industry and Climate Change and Deputy Prime Minister – is aiming for a seat in the cabinet, she has to vacate her post at the head of the state party according to the Greens’ dogma of the separation of offices.

Its co-chairman Felix Banaszak announced just a few days ago that he intends to focus on the Bundestag mandate he won last fall.