State Premier, H.E. Armin Laschet. Picture by Olaf Kosinsky, wikiberatung.de, Licence CC BY-SA 3.0
By Jan Eustachi.
On 14 May 2017 the population of the fourth largest but most populous and economically strongest German state, North Rhine-Westphalia, voted for a government change. Armin Laschet (Christian Democrats, CDU) has become successor to Hannelore Kraft (Social Democrats, SPD) in the capacity of state premier. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has formed a coalition with the Liberal Party (FDP). The government seat is located at Düsseldorf, the state capital.
On 30 June, Laschet formed his cabinet. The Liberals were given 3 and the Christian Democrats 9 out of 12 ministerial posts. The newly created Ministry of Children, Family, Refugees and Integration of NRW will be led by the Deputy Premier Dr. Joachim Stamp, a studied political scientist.
Lutz Lienenkämper, who had been Minister of Transport in the years of 2009 and 2010, was nominated as Minister of Finance by Laschet whereas the former chair of the EPP group in the European Parliament, Herbert Reul, has taken over the Ministry of Interior. He will be supported by Jürgen Mathies, the police commissioner of the city of Cologne, as state secretary.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia will be led by the professor of economics and former deputy premier (2005-2010) Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart and the Ministry of Employment, Health and Social Affairs by Karl-Josef Laumann. Yvonne Gebauer has taken over the Ministry of School and Further Education and Ina Scharrenbach leads the Ministry of Home Affairs, Communities and Local Government, Construction and Equality.
Peter Biesenbach will be the head of the Ministry of Justice and Hendrick Wüst the Ministry of Transport. The Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, Nature and Consumer Protection is led by Christina Schulze Föcking and the Ministry of Culture and Science by Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen. Dr. Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner has taken over the Ministry for Federal Affairs, Europe and Media and last not but not least Klaus Kaiser has become the parliamentary state secretary in the Ministry for Culture and Science.
The new government endeavours to strengthen regional cross-border co-operations and to implement successfully a shift towards a digitalised, sustainable and prosper economy.
History shows, that the close political and economic ties with the BeNeLux-countries and the development into a common region has brought many benefits to the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Netherlands are the most important trading partner of North Rhine-Westphalia, whilst Belgium is ranked number three in imports and number four in exports.
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Photography North Rhine-Westphalia’s Portal.
