Opinion
The CDU can only keep the AfD extremists out of power in East Germany with the help of the BSW. But she bears some responsibility for this absurd situation.
The Thuringian party committees of the CDU, BSW and SPD are expected to clear the way for coalition negotiations this week. Saxony and Brandenburg could quickly follow this example.
Admittedly, this isn’t pretty. But it is politically necessary. Without the participation of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – even through toleration – the three East German states cannot be governed in the future.
Of course, the CDU in particular finds itself in an absurd dilemma. Of all people, she, who rejects talks with the left, now wants to govern with a populist left-wing spinoff. And she, of all people, who has always clearly positioned herself on the side of the USA and Ukraine in the federal government, is supposed to campaign against arms deliveries and the stationing of US missiles in the countries. At least that’s what BSW boss Wagenknecht demands.
The communicative dissonance of the CDU leader
In his pain, CDU leader Friedrich Merz has opted for communicative dissonance. After describing Wagenknecht as a right-wing and left-wing extremist in June, he recently attested to her “socialism in Chanel” at the CSU party conference. And further emphasized: “For moral reasons alone,” the Union cannot cooperate with either the AfD or the BSW, otherwise they would “sell the soul of the Union.”
But who is supposed to believe that?
Because while the CDU chairman is talking down the BSW, Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer and state leader Mario Voigt are negotiating with the supposedly extreme party in Saxony and Thuringia. Both belong to the executive committee led by Merz. And both of them coordinate closely with him.
Of course, Kretschmer and Voigt have no desire for the test-tube party BSW. But they have just as little choice as Brandenburg’s SPD Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke. Because the only alternative – the largely right-wing extremist AfD – is self-prohibiting. This party must not have power in Germany in this shape and form.
The fact that there are no other variants is also due to the CDU. Because it continues to reduce the left to its totalitarian SED past and refuses any cooperation with it.
Wagenknecht’s propaganda works for Kiesewetter
If it wanted to, the Union could govern Saxony with the SPD, the Left and the Greens. Or she could form a minority government in the eternally complicated Thuringia, where even with the BSW and SPD there is only a stalemate, in order to be tolerated by the Wagenknecht party and the left.
The CDU would have had other options. But now the BSW is all she has left.
As I said, that’s not nice. But it’s not as bad as is often made out to be. When, for example, CDU member of the Bundestag Roderich Kiesewetter prefers to leave Thuringia to the AfD rather than negotiate with the Wagenknecht party, he not only shows that he doesn’t care about the people living there. He also proves that he is buying into Wagenknecht’s propaganda. He makes her bigger than she is.
The demands of the BSW founder are a transparent bugbear. She, too, can hardly believe that a few sentences in the preamble to state coalition agreements will change the federal government’s foreign policy – especially if they neither question the ties to the West nor rule out arms deliveries to Ukraine. The Union has long made it clear that this is exactly where its red line lies.
The formulation is therefore likely to end up somewhere between the text published jointly by Kretschmer, Voigt and Woidke and the BSW rhetoric. In the case of US missiles, it could be pointed out that the people in Thuringia and Saxony reject their stationing – without explicitly agreeing with this as a coalition.
Wagenknecht knows that she has to be willing to compromise. On the one hand, it only has symbolic politics to defend the political brand “Peace Party”. On the other hand, she is no longer the sole master of the process.
The emancipation of Sahra Wagenknecht
The representatives in the states have mandates for five years, while the party founder cannot even be sure whether she will still be in the Bundestag in a year. It is clearly visible how the Thuringian state party is emancipating itself from Berlin’s guidelines. In any case, Wagenknecht has no formal say in the negotiations.
A formulaic compromise on war and peace also makes sense because the CDU and BSW are not far apart in policy areas such as education, internal affairs and finance. The thin substance of the new party is actually an advantage at this point. She doesn’t have much to counter the expertise of others.
Incidentally, it is not subtle, but rather obvious that Merz distinguishes between the federal and state levels when dealing with the BSW. The SPD did the same thing for decades with the PDS and the Left Party – and governed quite successfully.
And yes, for the third time: none of this is nice. But it is better than being ruled by the AfD – or ending in parliamentary anarchy.
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.
