Minister President (1998–2002)
Clement was elected as Johannes Rau's successor as the Minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia on 27 May 1998. With state debts in excess of 130,000 million marks (DEM), he announced drastic cuts and austerity measures including reduction in the size of his own cabinet.
In one of his first moves on 17 June 1998, he announced the merger of the Justice and Interior ministries into one entity. There were doubts if this decision was compatible with the German Constitution, as it was seen by some as a violation of the division of powers. On 9 February 1999, the Constitutional Court of North Rhine-Westphalia ruled that the amalgamation violated the rights of the state parliament. In addition with pressure from coalition partner Bündnis '90/Die Grünen (the Green party), the merger was canceled. He took on the responsibilities of justice minister for a brief period between 10 and 22 March 1999, before handing the position over to Jochen Dieckmann, who served as the Justice Minister for NRW through the end of the legislature term on 27 June 2000.
During this period, Clement also served as the deputy chairman of the SPD from December 1999. In the 2000 state elections under his leadership, the SPD received 42.8% of the votes, a drop of 3.2% from the previous election. However, the party was able to form a coalition government with the Green Party. In this coalition, there were debates between Clement and the Green Party's Bärbel Höhn, who opposed the continuation of coal mining subsidies and the support for large industrial projects like the Garzweiler surface mine, that were supported by Clement.
After Clement started his term of office as state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia on 27 May 1998, four ministers resigned or left their position early —Minister for the Economy Bodo Hombach (moved to Bonn as Minister of the Chancellery), Justice Minister Reinhard Rauball (resigned after a week in position), Minister for European and Federal Affairs Detlev Samland (resigned due to tax misdemeanor), and Finance Minister Heinz Schleußer (Flugaffäre flights misuse). This was also the time when Clement proclaimed that the media industry in NRW would be the "engine of structural change" in the state. The move however, saw limited success. An animation studio in Oberhausen received €50 million in funding as part of this program, but generated limited employment in the end.
In Clement's time in office as the state premier of NRW, four parliamentary investigative committees, or Parlamentarische Untersuchungsausschüsse (PUAs), were set up: Review of state enterprises, High Definition Oberhausen (HDO – PUA II), High Definition Oberhausen (HDO – PUA III), and Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale.
