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Viewing cable 10DUSSELDORF10, NRW Election Campaign: SPD's Kraft Taking Aim,

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
10DUSSELDORF10 2010-02-23 12:56 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Dusseldorf
VZCZCXRO0890
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSL RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDF #0010/01 0541258
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 231256Z FEB 10
FM AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0001
INFO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
FRG COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSSELDORF 000010 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON GM
SUBJECT: NRW Election Campaign: SPD's Kraft Taking Aim, 
Minister-President R??ttgers Taking Cover 
 
1.  (SBU)  Summary:  Hannelore Kraft, the head of the opposition 
Social Democrats (SPD) in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), laid out 
her party's program for the May 9 state election to a February 22 
consular corps gathering.  Buoyed by recent WDR polling that shows 
Minister-President J????rgen R????ttgers' Christian Democrat/Free 
Democrat (CDU/FDP) coalition no longer enjoys a majority, Kraft 
pointed out that her underdog SPD, together with the surging 
Greens, are now  just one point back.  She sees the election, now 
ten weeks off, as wide open.  Her main points, paraphrased, boil 
down to:  It's the social state restructured, stupid.  End summary. 
 
2.  (U)  Kraft explained that the NRW SPD spent their five years in 
the wilderness since their loss to R????ttgers' CDU in 2005 taking 
stock, re-structuring their platform, talking to people and 
preparing the ground for the May election.  At the rate of roughly 
one theme per year, they have carefully elaborated programs for: 
 
????         Work and training: create conditions so that those who 
work earn more than someone on social security (Hartz IV); 
 
????         Education (per Kraft, the #1 theme in the state): 
further strengthen what R????ttgers' government has begun in terms of 
support from early education on, create more possibilities for 
children to move up in school and society, and stem the annual loss 
of 20% of youth who either fail to finish school or lack job 
training; 
 
????         Cities' and towns' financing:  many are in dire straits 
financially; create a sort of "bad bank" for communities so they 
can get back on their fiscal feet and provide the services that 
drive much of the SPD's agenda; 
 
????         The economy, innovation and technology: Germany and NRW 
in particular can only sell themselves as "better, rather than 
cheaper"  (besser statt billiger), through innovation and 
creativity; and 
 
????         Social cohesion in society must be maintained: a key 
factor that Kraft believes is fraying (during a recent visit to 
Opel in Bochum, the workers - who have been living with uncertainty 
for months on end - told her that if the facility closed, they 
would take to the streets with clubs in their hands). 
 
3. (U) The campaign is well underway.  The dismissal February 22 of 
NRW CDU Secretary General W????st for offering sponsors "rented" time 
with Minister-President R????ttgers was fresh meat (septel) (Kraft 
joked quietly that when she made her rounds in NRW and talked to 
people, she didn't charge).  Kraft, though, stated at the outset, 
"It  is extremely important to me that we don't run a negative 
campaign."  People believe something is fundamentally wrong in NRW 
- in her view, they want to hear about a vision for future, not 
interparty squabbling or mud-slinging. 
 
4. (U) Kraft described her efforts in recent months to put herself 
into the average person's shoes.  Instead of the usual "meet the 
managers and the union folks" - shaking hands, drinking coffee, 
exchanging pleasantries, then leaving a business or factory for the 
next appointment, she undertook an "enterprise" tour ("Tatkraft 
tour" - a play on words on her last name), spending a day in each 
of 10 work places, from a hospital to a mid-sized business, a youth 
center, an old people's home, and the police, among others, working 
with the workers, participating in their lives.  The results will 
be presented at the NRW SPD's pre-election convention February 
26-27.  If she becomes M-P, she stated, she intends to continue the 
practice once a month. 
 
5. (SBU) CG asked SPD Landtag member Wolfram Kuschke, who 
accompanied Kraft, about the situation with the NRW "Left" Party. 
Kraft had earlier said the SPD had hoped to draw away disaffected 
members who were shut out of the party's more extreme leadership. 
While this hasn't materialized, Kuschke said, Oskar Lafontaine's 
decision to leave the party leadership has caused the Left to go 
quiet.  No one knows the candidates - they are mostly unknowns, 
with little profile, and out of the headlines. 
 
6.  (SBU) Comment:  Kraft's SPD stands to profit from a series of 
small scandals and missteps, culminating with NRW CDU Secretary 
General W????st's February 22 resignation.  The local SPD hasn't yet 
had to sling much mud (there is plenty coming from Berlin), as the 
CDU is doing a fine job of creating its own gaffes.  The M-P "not 
knowing anything about meetings for rent" is fast turning into a 
topic of derision in the media and casual conversations alike - a 
tone new to this political season, which R????ttgers and his team 
will 
not relish, even as they scramble to find a new "general" to run 
 
DUSSELDORF 00000010  002 OF 002 
 
 
their campaign.  Kraft, who has done her grassroots homework and 
will take center stage this weekend at the SPD convention, for now 
seems on message and on target.  And she is right on at least one 
count:  this election, which could have been R????ttgers' for the 
asking, is up for grabs. 
WEINER