With the election of their resolute frontwoman Mona Neubaur as the top candidate for the North Rhine-Westphalia state election, the Greens have sent a declaration of war to all competitors. “Dear CDU, dear SPD, if you want to take on Mona in the election campaign, be prepared,” state party leader Yazgülu Zeybek warned both her own coalition partner and the opposition leader in North Rhine-Westphalia at a state party conference in Essen.
Neubaur will fight: “with heart, with attitude and with a razor-sharp mind.” The state election in the most populous federal state on April 25, 2027 is considered one of the most important elections of the coming year in Germany.
The top candidate was elected number 1 on the state list with around 85 percent of 271 votes cast. According to party information, 230 delegates voted yes, 32 voted no, and 9 abstained. There were no opposing candidates.
This means that the 49-year-old NRW Economics Minister even received a better result than before the state elections in 2022, when she was named the top candidate with almost 82.4 percent of the vote. At that time, the qualified teacher had led her party to its historically best NRW state election result of 18.2 percent and then into the first black-green coalition in the state's history.
Unlike Berlin: “Effect without a show”
Neubaur explained her recipe for success in her alliance with Hendrik Wüst (CDU) in North Rhine-Westphalia and governed differently than in Berlin. “We have not become quiet in this coalition,” she said of the cooperation between the politically dissimilar partners, which is often described as “noiseless”. “For us it’s not about the pose, but about the result – about impact without show.” Pragmatism does not mean wanting less, but rather making more possible.
“I know what it means to assert myself without having to constantly raise my voice, to organize majorities without giving up your own convictions,” emphasized Neubaur. She wants to continue this work in North Rhine-Westphalia “with my experience, my attitude, my strength and my joy in design.”
In voter surveys in recent months, the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia were between 15 and 18 percent. According to the latest survey, the Black-Green Party could expect to lose its majority. However, election surveys are subject to uncertainty.
If the negative trend were to be confirmed, a three-way constellation with the SPD could be an option - that would be a novelty for North Rhine-Westphalia. Regardless of this, federal party leader Felix Banaszak enjoyed making fun of the recently presented primary election campaign by SPD top candidate Jochen Ott.
There - under the slogan “shirt instead of tailored suit” - the lost hard-working image of the Social Democrats is being revived. “What kind of twisted idea is that?” Banaszak mocked to the laughter of the party conference.
“My grandfather, he worked in the coking plant,” said the Duisburg native. He always put on a tie when he went to church on Sundays. “If someone had come up with such folklore, they would have said: Come on, go away and stay right at home.”
In total, the Greens want to elect 90 places on the list by Sunday, “in order to prepare ourselves well for any election result,” as political director Raoul Roßbach explained. They currently have 39 members in the five-party parliament of the Düsseldorf state parliament.
The other two Green members of the state cabinet who ran for a place on the list - the Ministers for Family and Transport, Verena Schäffer (around 96 percent) and Oliver Krischer (around 87 percent) - also received promising places in the top ten, each without an opposing candidate.
Since the state elections in 2022, the number of members in Germany's strongest regional association of the Greens has increased by around 10,000 to 39,500 - more than tripling since the penultimate election, Roßbach emphasized.
At their three-day state party conference, the Greens also want to adopt their more than 100-page election program. The decision is not expected until late Sunday afternoon: According to the party, around 1,200 amendments with many detailed wording suggestions were submitted to the draft program.
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North Rhine-Westphalia SPD Felix Banaszak CDU Berlin Germany
However, no significant corrections to the core statements are expected. These include:
A binding final year of daycare.
The goal is for NRW to become climate neutral by 2045.
A coal phase-out brought forward by eight years to 2030.
By then, 80 percent of electricity in North Rhine-Westphalia should come from renewable energies and by 2035 completely.
In the debate, delegate Dennis Nawroth from the Gelsenkirchen district association called for a clear, concise and courageous green election program. “So let’s not be impressed by what coalition partners might not want to read in our program.” The hopeful Neubaur, dressed as always in black and given a jacket with the party logo, assured full commitment: “The best chapters of North Rhine-Westphalia have not yet been written.”
