Thomas Kutschaty wants to become prime minister in North Rhine-Westphalia. The SPD top candidate supported Esken and Walter-Borjans two years ago. Today the former left celebrates his closeness to Scholz. A conversation about good connections, instructive experiences and the fight against rising prices.
Mr. Kuschaty, you want to be prime minister of the most populous federal state. What makes you a better country father than the CDU candidate Hendrik Wüst?
Thomas Kutschaty: NRW needs more drive and initiative on many issues. We need better education and more training places because we lack skilled workers. We need more affordable housing. And we need more drive in renewable energies. None of this has been properly tackled in the past five years. I want to do better and take responsibility.
They were leading in the polls. Now clearly behind the CDU. What percentage is due to dissatisfaction with Chancellor Scholz?
Kuchaty: The surveys are all very brief. It’s a real head-to-head race. But there will be a change of government. We are confident that the SPD will lead the coming government.
Your dream coalition?
Kuchaty: I worked well with the Greens from 2010 to 2017.
The citizens saw it differently. Between 2012 and 2017 in particular, the SPD fell heavily in favor with voters (almost 10 percent). At that time you were Minister of Justice.
Kuchaty: We learned from our mistakes. It was important to us to return to our core issues. The SPD had to go back to what people really care about: good and fairly paid jobs, better educational opportunities and affordable housing. We were written off three years ago, but we were able to regain trust. That was a lot of work. I appreciate that.
Will an SPD-led NRW be treated differently by the Chancellor in the future than a CDU-led one?
Kuschaty: North Rhine-Westphalia doesn’t need a prime minister who keeps pointing his finger at Berlin and says: They have to do it. But someone who works closely and familiarly with the Chancellery. As deputy federal chairman of the SPD, I am in constant contact with my party leadership, the parliamentary group, and of course I have a direct line to Olaf Scholz.
Has the war overshadowed other issues in the election campaign?
Kuchaty: The war is of course a central topic.
In fact, the daily newspapers in North Rhine-Westphalia commissioned a survey on this and most (63 percent) stated that another topic was central to them…
Kuchaty: … the rising energy costs associated with that.
Are you in favor of an energy embargo in this context?
Kuchaty: I think a direct embargo is currently unwise. That doesn’t help Ukraine either. The damage that would occur in Germany in the event of an abrupt stop would be four times as high for our gross domestic product as the income that Russia gets from the gas. This shows that this sanction would affect us more than Putin. And I want us to be able to support Ukraine financially in the future as well. Well, I don’t want an abrupt embargo, but I do want to bring imports down to zero step by step.
Against the background of the impending energy shortage, is it right to abolish the distances between wind turbines in the future?
Kuchaty: Definitely. I think the wind energy decree is completely absurd. In recent years, we have only talked about how to prevent wind turbines in the state parliament. We now have to talk about entries instead of exits and make more wind power possible.
Usually, wind power is yes, just not on my doorstep. How do you intend to make this palatable to your citizens?
Kuschaty: I would like us to apply the existing federal legal distances in NRW as well. This means that there will be no wind power in the front yard in the future either. And when people see that the profits from the investments benefit them and not a large stock corporation, then acceptance also increases. We have to think about how, for example, municipal utilities or cooperatives can operate wind farms.
But it won’t happen as quickly as necessary. Will the phase-out of coal have to be pushed back in 2030?
Kuchaty: 2030 is our goal. And we should do everything we can to make that happen. Getting there is the difficult thing, not the question of whether we can do it in 2029 or 2031. In other words, we finally have to build more wind farms. We must bring photovoltaic systems to the roofs – immediately.
In addition to the energy supply, people are also concerned with the issue of inflation and price increases. Does a state government have the opportunity to influence this?
Kuchaty: Inflation occurs when certain products or goods are scarce and demand is significantly higher. That drives prices up. The main drivers of inflation are energy costs. We have 40 percent price increases in the energy sector. And here a state government can very well do something. We can and we must do everything we can to get more energy onto the market with the expansion of renewables.
But that will take time. In the meantime, what do you say to the people who are already struggling with price increases?
Kutschaty: So far, the federal government has put together two relief packages. Personally, that’s not enough for me. We need a third relief package, especially for pensioners, people on low incomes and companies who are particularly suffering from the current development.
IG Metall is starting collective bargaining for more salary today. Are higher wages also necessary in these times?
Kuchaty: Yes, there is no question about that. It is therefore good that the minimum wage is being raised this year. But that’s not enough. NRW is a federal state with a very high low-wage sector. In addition to the minimum wage, we also need better collective agreements.
In an interview with FOCUS Online, Hendrik Wüst spoke out in favor of the energy money also being paid out to pensioners and students – is that correct or is it an election campaign?
Kuchaty: Both. It is important that students and pensioners also get the energy money. But no show events like those organized by the Wüst government in the Bundesrat will help. Direct discussions are crucial here. I lead it. And I am therefore certain that something will come soon.
During the election campaign, the CDU made the issue of security the core of its brand. What is the SPD’s response to the issue?
Kuchaty: Security is a fundamentally social-democratic issue. We in particular are fighting for the people who cannot buy security privately.
Also against clan crime?
Kuchaty: I’m talking about organized crime because that’s the right term. The clans are part of it. But it also includes the rocker milieu or the mafia. We need to take action against this whole spectrum, not just a small part.
And how?
Kuschaty: For example, we need significantly more police officers and finally have to hunt down the bosses, not just the messengers. There is also a need for more vigor against money laundering. The state government is fighting with very little vigour.
