The state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on May 15 are eagerly awaited. But who leads the larger parties in the election. An overview.
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- Hendrik Wust (CDU): Since October 2021, Hendrik Wüst has been Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and at the same time state party leader. He succeeded Armin Laschet, who went into federal politics. The 46-year-old Munsterlander from Rhede (Borken district) was previously NRW Minister of Transport in the Laschet cabinet. Wüst has been a member of the state parliament since 2005. From 2006 to 2010, the CDU man acted as general secretary of the state party, but had to resign due to an affair about paid meetings with the state father at the time, Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU).
Wust is a lawyer. He is married and has a daughter.
- Thomas Kuchaty (SPD): Thomas Kutschaty, who was born in Essen, is the SPD’s top candidate. He has also been a member of the state parliament in Düsseldorf since 2005. The 53-year-old has government experience. He was Minister of Justice in North Rhine-Westphalia from 2010 to 2017 under Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft (SPD). He has been head of the SPD parliamentary group in the state parliament since 2018. He has also been state party leader since 2021.
Kuchaty studied law and is a lawyer. He is married and has three children
- Mona Neubaur (Greens): Mona Neubaur has been the state leader of her party in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2014. The top candidate of the Greens has not yet sat in the state parliament. The 44-year-old is from Bavaria. During her studies she came to Düsseldorf in the late 1990s.
Neubaur is a qualified teacher. From 2010 to 2014 she was managing director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
- Joachim Stamp (FDP): As the successor to Christian Lindner, who went to Berlin in 2017, Joachim Stamp became chairman of the NRW-FDP in November of the same year. The 51-year-old from Bonn had previously been State Minister for Children, Family, Refugees and Integration under Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU). At the same time, Stamp, who has been a member of the state parliament since 2012, became Deputy Prime Minister.
Stamp studied political science. He is married and has two daughters.
- Markus Wagner (AfD): The AfD has chosen Markus Wagner as its top candidate in the NRW state elections. The 57-year-old from the Minden-Lübbecke district used to be a member of the CDU and the constitutional offensive party, of which he was even the national chairman for a time. He has been a member of the state parliament since 2017 and has also been chairman of the parliamentary group there since October of the same year.
Wagner is the managing partner of a facility that provides integration assistance for mentally ill people. He is married and has a son.
- Carolin Butterwegge (left): The left would like to go back to the NRW state parliament. The party has appointed Carolin Butterwegge from Wermelskirchen as the top candidate. She was a member of the state parliament from 2010 to 2012. Buttwegge is 47 years old and has been a member of the state executive committee of the left since 2018.
Butterwegge is a sociologist. The poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge is her husband. In 2017 he ran for the left as a candidate in the federal presidential election. They have two children.
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