interview
A coalition with the BSW? Then his party would be on the brink of collapse, believes CDU MEP Dennis Radtke in star-Interview. Höcke could be stopped in other ways, he says.
Mrs Radtke, you and others CDU-Politicians want to use an initiative to prevent coalitions with the BSW. Why?
In terms of foreign and security policy, but also with regard to Europe, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance is against everything that makes up the CDU’s DNA. And also against the legacy of Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl. This is a fundamental question. A formalized cooperation with the Stalinist cadre party BSW would tear the Union apart.
In Thuringia and Saxony, however, it is not about foreign or European policy.
Politics in the federal states do not happen under a glass bell jar. It has an impact on the federal level. Will we soon be submitting proposals to the Bundesrat on Ukraine or on the introduction of a wealth tax under pressure from Sahra Wagenknecht? I don’t have the imagination for that. Ms Wagenknecht has made her conditions for coalitions clear, again today. She expects signals on Russia and Ukraine.
Wagenknecht rejects arms deliveries to Ukraine and the stationing of long-range US missiles on German soil.
She is not interested in finding solutions to the problems of the people in Saxony and Thuringia. She is simply playing her game in the spirit of Vladimir Putin.
The BSW members are hand-picked by Mrs Wagenknecht
In Thuringia and Saxony However, it would not be Wagenknecht who would sit in a government, but rather state politicians from the BSW.
That’s true, but her party is a closed operation. The BSW has 650 members across Germany. They are hand-picked by Mrs Wagenknecht and her husband Oskar Lafontaine. There should be no illusions about that!
Who should the Union then govern with in Thuringia and Saxony?
I want Michael Kretschmer to remain Prime Minister of Saxony and Mario Voigt and Jan Redmann to become Prime Ministers in Thuringia and Brandenburg. We have to ask ourselves how we can achieve this. And how we can prevent Björn Höcke from becoming Prime Minister in Thuringia. I have great respect for the complex situation there.
But this is only possible with the help of Linke and BSW.
The Left and the BSW have declared that they do not want an AfD prime minister. When the election comes around, they are welcome to vote for the candidate of the strongest party in the political center. This can be achieved even without a coalition agreement.
Without concessions this will not work.
It also worked for Hannelore Kraft in my home state of North Rhine-Westphalia. She led a minority government for the SPD from 2010 to 2012 and was tolerated by the Left Party. And she was very successfully re-elected. There are ways beyond formalized cooperation.
This party has the same goal as the AfD: the destruction of the CDU
So all that remains is a minority government?
I don’t want to give unsolicited advice to those who have to make something out of this mess on the ground. I am urging the importance of possible cooperation with the BSW. There are other ways that will not tear the Union apart and at the same time make the BSW satisfactory. This party has the same goal as the AfD: the destruction of the CDU and a different Germany.
Keyword Left Party: Wouldn’t it be time to reconsider the incompatibility decision with them?
It is difficult to explain why one should have discussions with Bodo Ramelow (Left, editor’s note.), a West German-born trade union official in Thuringia, but at the same time wants to talk to his party’s former communist platform.
I am not a better Westie
Do you rule out a coalition with the Left just as categorically as one with the BSW?
It is not my job to shake up the incompatibility decision. The entire party must discuss this in due course. Apart from that, the Left is largely politically dead outside of Thuringia.
The initiative is supported by West CDU members like you. In the Union, do the West Germans tell the East Germans what to do?
I am neither a know-it-all nor a know-it-all Westie. I don’t tell the states what they should and shouldn’t do. But we are a people’s party. Sometimes you have to call for prudence and say: Do you actually know what you’re letting yourself in for?
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
