His motion of no confidence has little chance of success, but the political games by AfD right wing Björn Höcke in the Thuringian parliament are bearing fruit. The focus: the announced voting behavior of the CDU.
Thuringia’s SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Hey has called on the CDU members in the state parliament to only give the AfD candidate Björn Höcke no votes in the vote of no confidence. “If a democrat is asked whether an AfDler – and Björn Höcke – should become Prime Minister of Thuringia, there is only one clear answer: No!”, Hey said in Erfurt before the planned vote. Hey appealed to the Christian Democrats not to stay in their plenary seats as announced, but “to position themselves clearly against Höcke”.
The Thuringian AfD parliamentary group is pushing a constructive vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) and has nominated its parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke as a candidate. The vote is scheduled for early Friday afternoon. For the success of the vote of no confidence, Höcke would need an absolute majority – 46 votes.
If he were to achieve this, he would be the new Prime Minister in the Free State. However, his candidacy is considered hopeless. All parliamentary groups except his own had announced that they did not want to vote for Höcke. The AfD parliamentary group has 22 seats in parliament. There is only one ballot.
Voting behavior of the CDU causes irritation
The announced voting behavior of the CDU parliamentary group had previously caused controversy. She does not want to take part in the vote – the MPs want to stay in their seats. CDU parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt justified this step with the fact that the CDU did not participate in the “tricks” and “games” of the AfD. “The most visible sign that the CDU parliamentary group can set is that the CDU parliamentary group does not participate in this farce that the AfD parliamentary group is initiating here,” said Voigt. Representatives of other parliamentary groups expressed incomprehension that the CDU MPs do not want to vote no for a candidate like Höcke.
The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the Thuringian AfD as proven extremist. Höcke is considered to be the co-founder of the AfD’s “wing”, which has since been formally dissolved and classified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a right-wing extremist.
There were also differing positions on the state party from the ranks of the CDU. For example, the former CDU member of the Bundestag Ruprecht Polenz tweeted: “If the AfD brings in a ‘constructive’ vote of no confidence in the Thuringian state parliament and proposes Mr. Höcke as prime minister, there is only one way for the CDU to behave correctly: it has to say” No. ” ” voices.”
In their justification for why they requested a constructive vote of no confidence, the AfD parliamentary group also referred to the failed state parliament dissolution, which should have triggered a new election in the fall. The Left, SPD, Greens and the CDU had agreed to dissolve parliament, but were unable to secure the necessary two-thirds majority and therefore canceled the vote.
This means that Thuringia is again facing a possible parliamentary crisis. Because Ramelow’s red-red-green minority government does not have a majority in the state parliament – it lacks four votes. And the CDU parliamentary group, which contributed votes for important projects for about a year and a half, rejected a renewed collaboration.
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