Bodo Ramelow against Björn Höcke: “Form a majority against fascists”

The next day, Bodo Ramelow sounds quite cheerful on the phone. Yes, he had gotten some sleep, he says. Everything is fine. In fact, he had long been prepared for his almost ten-year term in office to soon be over.

He is quite relaxed about it. “I will give up my position as Prime Minister, but not to take on another role in a state government,” he says. CDU state leader Mario Voigt now has the mandate to govern.

So was that it for the first, only and, for now, last left-wing head of government in Germany?

No way. Although the Left Party collapsed from 31 percent to 13.1 percent in the state elections on Sunday, Ramelow is brimming with self-confidence. He says, for example: “Even if my party lost due to external circumstances, I am the only leading candidate who won his constituency directly.” And of course he will exercise the mandate to the full extent. “I owe that to my voters.”

Retirement at 68? Not with Ramelow.

And there is more. Despite its defeat in Thuringia, the Left Party is in a key role. The coalition hoped for by the CDU with the alliance of Sahra Wagenknecht and the SPD will not have a majority in the state parliament with 44 votes. The AfD and the Left Party together have just as many seats.

Parliament caught in political stalemate

The new parliament seems to be caught in a political stalemate. And one man in particular could resolve it: Bodo Ramelow. Firstly, he is still prime minister and will remain in office as acting prime minister until a successor is elected – no matter how long that may take. Secondly, he has one vote in the state parliament. And a single vote could help a government gain a majority.

“I know that it will now depend on me,” says Ramelow. “Thuringia needs a stable majority government beyond the AfD as soon as possible, and we must use all conceivable solutions to achieve this.” He is, he adds, “very aware of his civic responsibility.” In doing so, he will try “at every minute” to take his fellow MPs in the parliamentary group with him.

Ramelow has often duped his party

Anyone who knows Ramelow knows that when he says “all conceivable solutions” he really means “all conceivable solutions”. This also implies a possible solo effort if the party and factions do not follow him or the CDU is reluctant to tolerate the Left. He could promise Voigt his vote or, in an extreme case, support a CDU-BSW-SPD coalition as an independent MP.

To understand that these are real possibilities, a brief look at the state’s recent history is necessary. Ramelow has always been good for surprises. When he first sounded out a red-red-green alliance as a leading candidate in 2009, the SPD did not want to accept him as state premier despite the stronger Left Party result. What did Ramelow do? To the outrage of the party leadership in Berlin, he renounced his claim to the state chancellery.

The SPD nevertheless decided in favor of the CDU under Christine Lieberknecht, who failed twice in the election of the Prime Minister despite having a stable majority. And what did Ramelow do? As a personal friend of the Christian Democrat, he intervened to help: by running as a rival candidate, he secured her an overwhelming majority in the third round of voting, which saved face for the future head of government.

Of course, he had factored in the fact that he was also the center of attention. As much as he occasionally suffers under the burden of his responsibility in a way that is very public, he also enjoys appearing as a publicly recognized doer.

The maneuver with Lieberknecht

This was also the case in the chaotic winter of 2020 in Thuringia. After a certain Thomas Kemmerich from the CDU, AfD and FDP was elected as Prime Minister instead of Ramelow and then resigned, the CDU found it difficult to vote Ramelow back into office. So Ramelow called his confidante Lieberknecht and persuaded her to stand by as interim head of government until new elections were held quickly. The Union was caught off guard by the maneuver: Because it did not want to dissolve parliament immediately in view of the disastrous polls, it cleared the way for Ramelow after some back and forth.

There are many more examples of this kind, such as Ramelow’s election of an AfD vice president of the state parliament or his commitment to a car toll in the Bundesrat: Ramelow thinks and acts outside the usual patterns. He likes to surprise everyone and often annoys his own party.

Bodo Ramelow: “Use the majority against the fascists”

That is why it is particularly significant when Ramelow now says: “I will do everything, really everything, to ensure that the democratic parties use their majority against the fascists – in the election for the President of the State Parliament, but also in the election of my successor in the office of Prime Minister.”

Him against Björn Höcke: That is the role he still sees himself in.

In fact, the first test for a majority beyond the AfD will be the election of the parliamentary president. According to the constitution, the new state parliament must be constituted on October 1st – and the AfD not only has the right to propose candidates as the strongest faction, but also provides the oldest member, who will lead the secret ballot. For Ramelow, it is all the more important “that all democratic parties agree beforehand to prevent a right-wing extremist state parliament president.” Because his power would go far beyond representative functions.

Ramelow, who was the parliamentary group leader in the state parliament for a long time, knows exactly what he is talking about. For example, it will be the task of a parliamentary president to lead the subsequent election of a prime minister. He will then also be responsible for interpreting the controversial passage in the constitution, according to which “the most votes” in a third round of voting are enough to determine a head of government. According to the majority opinion under constitutional law, the no votes would then not count.

This is exactly the scenario that the AfD is heading towards. Ramelow, on the other hand, sees himself – and this is no exaggeration on his part – in a kind of anti-fascist resistance. To this end, to repeat the central quote, he is happy with “all conceivable solutions”. To reinforce this, he quotes the Christian Democrat Bernhard Vogel, who once governed Thuringia with an absolute majority: “First the country, then the party, then the person.”