NRW MINISTER-PRESIDENT RUETTGERS TO WASHINGTON: MAKING NRW A

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SIPDIS

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV ECON ENRG ELAB GM
SUBJECT: NRW MINISTER-PRESIDENT RUETTGERS TO WASHINGTON: MAKING NRW A
LONG TERM CDU POWER BASE; RECONCILING ECONOMICS WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE

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1. (SBU) Summary: North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)
Minister-President Juergen Ruettgers will travel to Washington
DC, Pittsburgh, and New York City February 12-17 to follow-up on
his 2006 trip to the U.S. His primary goals there are to make
and renew political contacts and to expand cooperation on
renewable energy. This message provides background on
Ruettgers, who has been making headlines during the last six
months with statements that often sound more like SPD than CDU
policy. This has caused some distress in the national CDU and
elsewhere, but the NRW party backs him firmly, because they
support his goal: to transform NRW, an SPD bastion since the
mid-1960s, into a long-term power base for the CDU, which he
believes can only be done by "tacking left." For now, his focus
is on ensuring a CDU re-election in 2010, but he may have
national aspirations beyond that. He is favorably disposed
toward the U.S. but is a strong Europeanist and has been less
accessible to CG and the U.S. business community than his SPD
predecessors. Bio in para 13. End Summary.

Emphasizing Social Concerns to Win SPD Voters
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2. (SBU) Since his historic election victory in May 2005, NRW
Minister-President Ruettgers has pursued two overriding goals:
1) to be reelected in 2010 and 2) to transform Germany's most
populous state into a long term power base for the CDU. With
NRW for decades a Social Democratic stronghold (the SPD held
power for 39 years prior to 2005),and with its many urban and
heavily industrialized areas, SPD instincts run deep in broad
swaths of the electorate. To attract SPD voters into the CDU
camp and hold them over the long run, Ruettgers has been
emphasizing social aspects in Germany's ongoing structural
reform debate, using the slogan "reconciling economic reason
with social justice." He has supported his FDP coalition
partners in their campaign to adapt German economic and social
structures to the demands of globalization, but with the proviso
that they take greater account of social concerns.

A New CDU "Labor Leader"?
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3. (SBU) Ruettgers has carved out a position for himself and
the NRW CDU as something akin to the "social conscience" of the
national party, and he styles himself as a champion of the
interests of the "little guy." He takes pride in the fact that
in the 2005 state elections the NRW CDU received a majority of
the blue collar vote, a traditional SPD voter clientele, and he
wants to hold this constituency. In pursuing this goal,
Ruettgers has tacked to the left of the SPD, as on the Hartz IV
labor market reforms when he set off a furious debate about
extending unemployment benefits for those who had paid into the
system for a long time -- to the serious discomfort of SPD
politicians like Federal Labor Minister Muentefering (SPD) who
fumed at being outflanked on this SPD issue. Against this
backdrop, it is perhaps not surprising that 90 percent of
respondents in a recent poll could not identify the SPD leader
in NRW (Hannelore Kraft),while 10 percent even mentioned
Ruettgers as head of the SPD.

A Successful Minister-President
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4. (SBU) Under Ruettgers' leadership, the CDU/FDP coalition in
Duesseldorf has in its first 18 months in office put NRW back on
track, after the stagnation that characterized the latter years
of SPD rule. Moving quickly with an ambitious reform agenda,
Ruettgers has cut the public debt and consolidated the state
budget, launched sweeping educational reforms to improve schools
and universities, taken new initiatives to better integrate the
large immigrant population (e.g. by establishing Germany's first
Integration Ministry),and fought to phase out the unprofitable
hard coal mining industry at the earliest politically feasible
date. At the same time, and to Ruettgers' benefit, unemployment
has also fallen.


5. (SBU) Except for SPD leaders, who have attempted to tar
Ruettgers with the label of "speaking left and acting right,"
voters in NRW have either supported these measures or gone along
with them with little protest. Even his tough position on
ending hard coal subsidies has generated few demonstrations,
despite the job losses they will entail, because NRW voters
largely accept his rationale: 1) the need to end the massive
coal subsides in the state budget; and 2) the need to invest
more in future-oriented activities rather than focus on past
industries, however important they may be for the NRW identity.
Ruettgers' emphasis is on getting his house in order to ensure
his reelection in 2010, and later, perhaps, a place on the
national stage.

Draws Flak, Sticks to Guns

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6. (SBU) With his emphasis on social issues, Ruettgers has
staked out the most prominent position on the left of the CDU,
in the tradition of the CDU labor wing (CDA),whose national
chairman, Karl-Josef Laumann, is Ruettgers' Labor Minister. He
is, however, in the minority in the party and disagrees publicly
with parts of Merkel's reform course. For example, he
infuriated party leaders and raised some eyebrows abroad by
telling the press in July 2006 that the CDU needed to part with
"fundamental illusions" ("Lebensluegen"),such as the notion
that lower business taxes lead to more investment and job
creation. Ruettgers stuck to his views, however, despite
criticism in the national CDU, most visibly at its national
convention in Dresden in November 2006, when he was reelected a
Vice Chair, but with the poorest showing of the four Vice
Chairs.

Focus on 2010
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7. (SBU) Ruettgers takes this criticism in stride, even
relishes the attention it accords him, because unlike
counterparts CDU Ministers-President in Hessen (Koch) and Lower
Saxony (Wulff),he has no national ambitions for now. Much more
important for him for the next several years is the overwhelming
support he enjoys in the NRW CDU, where a September 2006 party
convention in Muenster showed his leadership to be uncontested.
Muenster almost unanimously elected Ruettgers' pick for
Secretary General, Hendrik Wuest, a young and dynamic political

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talent, who appears to be the right man to mobilize the party
between now and 2010. Aides tell us Ruettgers sees his national
CDU numbers as unimportant, because what counts to the NRW CDU
is winning their state, because of a pattern that has with a few
exceptions generally applied to post-war German politics: "as
NRW goes, there goes the nation."

Possible National Ambitions
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8. (SBU) Although all NRW CDU contacts and most political
observers tell us that for now Ruettgers has a state focus, he
may have ambitions beyond NRW after 2010. Two influential NRW
CDU insiders (members of the CDU's national executive committee)
have told us independently that Ruettgers could become a
contender for national CDU chairman and/or chancellor candidate.
As a native son from NRW, which comprises almost one fourth of
the German electorate, Ruettgers would have certain strengths in
a future national contest. If he succeeds in 2010, he could use
this power base as a springboard for national politics.
However, he is on poor terms with Chancellor and party leader
Merkel, and her departure from the political statge is a
prerequisite for a national move on Ruettgers' part.

Building a Foreign Policy Profile
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9. (SBU) Ruettgers' efforts to establish a foreign policy
record, despite the limitations inherent in his stature as a
state politician, are another signal of national aspirations.
While NRW opposition leader, he undertook two official visits to
the U.S., which included meetings with Governor Schwarzenegger
in California and former Secretary of State Kissinger in New
York. In his first nine months as Minister-President, he paid
official visits to Benelux, France, UK, Israel, Poland and the
United States. In connection with his first U.S. trip as
Minister-President in February 2006, he stressed that his two
SPD predecessors had never officially visited the United States
during their time in office, and announced that he would travel
to the U.S. at least once/year. His February 12-17 visit will
include meetings on Capitol Hill, at the Energy and Treasury
Departments, as well as a meeting in Pittsburgh with Governor
Rendell to sign a special cooperation agreement on clean energy
cooperation between NRW and Pennsylvania.

Foreign Policy Speech Causes Stir
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10. (SBU) A January 29 speech before the prestigious German
Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin is further
evidence that Ruettgers is developing his own foreign policy
profile. In connection with Germany's EU Presidency, Ruettgers
used the speech ("Europe's Role in the New World Order") to
praise the "unique success story of European integration as a
model for a new world order" and to present his views on UN
reform, the Middle East, terrorism and the relationship with the
U.S. On the latter, his main point was that a strong united
Europe was also in the U.S. interest because there would then be
a "balance" in transatlantic relations. He welcomed Chancellor
Merkel's initiative to intensify U.S.-EU economic relations.

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11. (SBU) Ruettgers' remarks on international terrorism caused
a stir, however, as pundits in the center-right daily "Die Welt"
and elsewhere challenged one of his theses: that the West has
played a role in the rise of Islamic terrorism. Although he and
his spokesman defended his remarks as more nuanced than they
were portrayed in the media, politicians like national FDP
Secretary General Dirk Niebel criticized him. Commentary in NRW

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suggests that Ruettgers achieved one goal of the speech, to stay
in the headlines, this time on a foreign policy issue.

Comment
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12. (SBU) Ruettgers is favorably disposed toward the U.S., as
witnessed by his emphasis on annual visits and guidance to
Ministers and close aides to be available as enthusiastic
partners for the Consulate. He has not, however, been as
accessible as his SPD predecessors to the CG or to the American
business community, some of whose leaders for this reason
express a certain preference for his predecessors, centrist SPD
politicians Peer Steinbrueck and Wolfgang Clement. Ruettgers
takes enormous pride in his 2005 victory, considering his
leadership role in NRW as having paved the way for the CDU-led
government in Berlin. The criticism he receives for his
unorthodox positions seems to bother him little, for he cares
most about ensuring that the SPD bastion of NRW stays in CDU
column. His policy positions are not only tactical
considerations, but grow out of his strong personal belief in
the social dimensions of Christian Democracy. Aside from the at
times awkward policy dilemmas he presents for his party, he has
played a loyal regional party power broker for Chancellor
Merkel, despite slights (no NRW minister from the CDU). Even
his coalition partners in the FDP, many of whom have personal
reservations about his social policy ideas, have kept silent
because they see him as an ally in their agenda. Given his
strong position in NRW, he feels able to stake out independent
positions in the party.

Biographic Note
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13. (U) Personal: Juergen Ruettgers was born on June 26, 1951
in Cologne. He attended a Catholic high school and studied law
and history at the University of Cologne. The son of a master
electrician who owned a small business, he is married and has
three children. During school and his studies, he was an active
member of the Catholic Youth in Cologne. After earning a PhD in
Law from Cologne University, he joined the youth organization of
the CDU, Junge Union, and served as its NRW chairman 1980-1986.
He worked for the German Cities and Communities Association and
in the administration of his hometown Pulheim, west of Cologne.

Federal Government Experience: Ruettgers became a member of the
German Parliament, the Bundestag, in 1987, where he stayed until

2000. From 1991-1994 he was chief whip of the CDU/CSU Bundestag
group, one of the most influential positions in parliament,
practically the right hand of then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the
Bundestag. In 1994, Kohl appointed him Federal Minister for
Education, Science, Research and Technology, a position he held
until 1998 when Kohl lost the Bundestag elections against SPD
leader Gerhard Schroeder. Ruettgers was then elected Vice
Chairman of the CDU/CSU Bundestag group, but soon decided to
continue his political career at the state level in his native
NRW, although he remained actively involved in the national
leadership of the CDU as national Vice Chairman.

NRW State Leadership: In 1999, Ruettgers was elected as chairman
of the NRW CDU, and in 2000 he ran a promising state election
campaign against then-Minister-President Wolfgang Clement (SPD),
but lost because the election took place in the wake of the
1999/2000 party financing scandal around former Chancellor Kohl.
Although Ruettgers had nothing to do with this scandal, his
former close association with Kohl ruined his election chances.
The CDU remained in opposition, with Ruettgers as opposition
leader from 2000-2005, before taking over as Minister-President
on June 22, 2005.


14. (U) This message was coordinated with Embassy Berlin.
BOYSE