Bundesrat elects North Rhine-Westphalia premier Wüst as its new president
The upper house of the states elects Hendrik Wüst (CDU) as its president today. He takes over from Bremen mayor Bovenschulte on 1 November – and is seen in the Union as a possible successor to Merz.
Archive image · Photo: Olaf Kosinsky / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
At its session on Friday, the Bundesrat elects North Rhine-Westphalia's state premier Hendrik Wüst (CDU) as its new president. Wüst takes over from Bremen mayor Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) on 1 November. The presidency of the chamber of the states rotates every year in a fixed order based on the states' population. The Bundesrat president also deputises for the federal president when the latter is unable to act.
For Wüst it is a day with two big appearances: in the evening he speaks at the opening of the Junge Union convention in Bonn. According to dpa, Wüst and CSU leader Markus Söder are seen as the strongest contenders should a debate about a successor to Chancellor Friedrich Merz break out in the Union. In ZDF's Politbarometer in early October, Wüst ranked third in the popularity scale at 0.8, behind Boris Pistorius (1.3) and Manuela Schwesig (1.1). Merz hit a personal low of minus 2.0.