The Chancellor cannot expect a carriage ride like in Bavaria during her visit to NRW. Prime Minister Laschet wants her visit to look like a working visit. But it’s about nothing less than the candidacy for chancellor.
Photo series with 21 pictures
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No pomp, no gold sheen, but also no more sooty coal pot: if Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) This Tuesday for the first time at a meeting of the North Rhine-Westphalian cabinet with the Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) takes part, then everything should look like a working atmosphere. Carriage, steamboat ride and a magnificent hall of mirrors like Merkel’s visit to the cabinet of Bavaria’s Prime Minister in mid-July Markus Söder (CSU) in Herrenchiemsee will not exist in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Cabinet meeting in Bavarian: Markus Söder received the Chancellor in Herrenchiemsee Palace. (Source: Bavarian State Chancellery / imago images)
Splendor is not Laschet’s art either. That is why, after the meeting at the Ständehaus in Düsseldorf, he drives with Merkel in a car convoy to the Ruhr area to the Unesco world heritage site Zeche Zollverein. The gigantic mining complex with the huge winding tower and rusty industrial plants is a monument to German industrial history.
Laschet’s popularity crashes in the corona crisis
At least the Ständehaus at the Kaiserteich in Düsseldorf is a stately setting for the joint cabinet meeting. Corona distance rules could be observed in the former state parliament building, which was built at the end of the 19th century, according to the state government. The state house as the seat of the state government would have been out of the question for the cabinet meeting because construction is currently underway there.
Laschet and Söder – the officially never declared competition between the two heads of government has been making headlines for weeks. CDU Federal Vice Laschet fights in December CDU party congress but first about the federal presidency. As a possible future CDU boss and potential candidate for chancellor, the often underestimated Aachener is under observation – especially in the Corona-Krise.
During the Corona period, Laschet’s popularity ratings plummeted, while Söder’s ratings skyrocketed – including in surveys on the candidate for chancellor, although he repeatedly asserts that his place is in Bavaria. However, Söder’s image as a strict fighter on the Corona front has gotten a scratch since the large Corona test breakdown in Bavaria.
Laschet’s fiercest competitor is currently the former Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz. This occurs just like the foreign politician Norbert Röttgen against Laschet in the fight for the CDU chairmanship. So far, there is no indication that Laschet could back down. On the contrary, the Prime Minister has already started the election campaign for the favor of the party congress delegates. He recently traveled to Saxony-Anhalt – Merz has many followers in East Germany.
Laschet’s visit to overcrowded refugee camps on the Greek island of Lesbos in early August was particularly noted. The refugees should not be forgotten in the Corona crisis, Laschet had said and spoke of an “outcry from the desperate”. Laschet called for a solution to the EU dispute over the distribution of refugees, which had been deadlocked for years. The NRW state chief did not forget to say that he was in line with Merkel. Germany currently has the EU Council Presidency and would like to give the EU asylum reform new impetus.
In Düsseldorf, the rise in corona infections is likely to be a dominant topic in discussions with Merkel. The NRW state government sees a serious pandemic situation. The new increase in the number of cases is still linear and is seen by the state government as controllable in terms of numbers. But politicians and experts fear that it could get worse in autumn or winter.
Laschet wants to show that he can Corona
Merkel also described the corona numbers on Monday according to dpa information from party circles in the CDU presidium meeting as worrying, but still manageable. There could therefore be no further easing at the moment.
Even if the number of infections continues to rise, Laschet has spoken out against a renewed nationwide lockdown with school closings like in the spring. But Laschet, who has the reputation of a “looser”, is ready to take severe corona measures. In no other federal state is there such a strict one Mask requirement also in school lessons like in NRW.
The Zollverein World Heritage Site: Merkel visits the old industrial plant with Laschet. (Source: Jochen Tack)
Merkel’s visit is declared as a working visit, but at least the Ruhr Conference, which has so far been neglected, should have a little bit of chancellor glamor. Merkel meets those responsible for this project in the Zeche Zollverein for about an hour.
NRW head of the SPD: “The Ruhr area has nothing from the Chancellor’s visit”
The Ruhr area with its five million inhabitants is still a problem child, although coal and steel have long ceased to determine the everyday life of the broad masses. The Ruhr Conference, which was launched in 2018, aims to advance Germany’s largest conurbation with 74 individual projects – from the renovation of tram networks to the fight against Clan crime. The project headings are not always designed to be broadly understandable.
Merkel’s invitation to the NRW cabinet was only “a desperate attempt by Armin Laschet to bring a bit of gloss to his application for the CDU party chairmanship,” according to him SPD-Landtag parliamentary group leader Thomas Kutschaty in the “Rheinische Post”. In any case, the Ruhr area will not benefit from the Chancellor’s visit.
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