Frankfurt (dpa) – A conservative changing of the guard took place in the German state of Hesse on Tuesday, with the departure of the country’s longest-serving state premier.
Volker Bouffier, from the Christian Democrats (CDU), left his post on Tuesday, saying in a final speech in the state parliament in Wiesbaden that he was “closing a circle.”
Soon afterwards, his CDU colleague Boris Rhein – some 20 years younger at 50 – was elected as the new premier of the central state, which counts Frankfurt as its biggest city.
Bouffier is the longest-serving head of a government in Germany, having been in office for almost 12 years. During his latest administration, he led a coalition of the CDU and the Greens.
There may soon be two further such coalitions at a state level in Germany, with negotiations between the two parties under way in Schleswig-Holstein in the north, and North Rhine Westphalia in the west.
Rhein, who until Tuesday was speaker of the state parliament, is expected to present his Cabinet line-up later.
The next elections in Hesse are due in the autumn of next year.
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