None of the parties elected to the state parliament want to form a coalition with Björn Höcke’s AfD. Nevertheless, the 52-year-old wants to invite people to talks about forming a government. Someone else has a chance.
Despite the lack of coalition prospects, Thuringia’s AfD leader Björn Höcke believes his party will have the mandate to govern after the state election. He wants to talk to the other parties about possible coalitions, said the 52-year-old in Erfurt. It is a good parliamentary tradition that the strongest force invites talks after an election. “We are ready to take on government responsibility.”
In the Thuringian state elections on Sunday, the AfD with its right-wing top candidate Höcke became the strongest force. None of the other parties elected to the state parliament want to form a coalition with the party, which the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as definitely right-wing extremist, so Höcke’s ambitions to participate in the government are considered hopeless.
Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt has a chance of succeeding Left Party Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow. The Christian Democrats came second in the election. However, he is likely to face difficult exploratory and coalition talks. To achieve a stable majority in a government coalition, he would have to bring the newly formed Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) alliance with the former mayor of Eisenach, Katja Wolf, and the SPD on board.
BSW founder Wagenknecht had already set conditions before the election, such as positions on the subject of war and peace. The CDU and SPD view this with great skepticism.
For the AfD, the election victory will mean that they will once again be back in the opposition. Recently, the party’s popularity in Thuringia had fallen slightly: in November and January, the AfD was polling at between 34 and 36 percent. At the time, Höcke had clearly stated his goal of participating in the government, and some even saw an absolute majority within reach. During the election campaign, the AfD put up posters with a picture of Höcke with the word “Prime Minister” written in large letters.
The CDU politician Voigt, on the other hand, actively sought direct confrontation with the right-wing extremist Höcke during the election campaign, even duelling with him on television and trying to focus the election campaign on the formula Voigt versus Höcke. Voigt categorically rejects cooperation with the AfD, even though he and his CDU have repeatedly accepted AfD votes in the past when passing their own laws and motions, which has caused some outrage.
Source: Stern
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