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RR RUEHAG RUEHLZ
DE RUEHDF #0004/01 0391215
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081215Z FEB 07
FM AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0058
INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHDF/AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF 0070

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSSELDORF 000004 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
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 
 
DUSSELDORF 00000004  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
¶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"? 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶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 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
 
DUSSELDORF 00000004  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
----------------- 
 
¶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 
 
SIPDIS 
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 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
DUSSELDORF 00000004  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶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 
 
SIPDIS 
suggests that Ruettgers achieved one goal of the speech, to stay 
in the headlines, this time on a foreign policy issue. 
 
Comment 
----------- 
 
¶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 
------------------- 
 
¶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