Formation of government: BSW is getting closer to government participation in Thuringia

She has had a few confidential conversations – it was a tough tug of war over words and sentences. Now Katja Wolf, party and parliamentary group leader of the BSW in Thuringia, is standing in front of the cameras and talking about the “most difficult negotiations of my life”. And above all the result: the CDU, BSW and SPD reached an agreement on the long-disputed peace issue. Party founder Sahra Wagenknecht had made the start of negotiations for a coalition with the participation of the BSW, which was only founded a year ago, dependent on the passage on peace policy.

The parties want to start coalition negotiations on Tuesday and – according to the message from the state leaders on Monday – focus primarily on Thuringian issues again. The stress of the past few days, the hard struggle for a possible preamble for a coalition agreement with heckling from party leaders Friedrich Merz and Sahra Wagenknecht was still visible to the Thuringians.

Parallels to Brandenburg

The end result is a compromise that is similar in some points to a paper presented shortly before by the SPD and BSW in Brandenburg – but also differs in nuances: The aim is to trigger a broad debate on the question of the stationing of medium-range missiles. However, the Brandenburg negotiators agreed on a wording according to which they viewed the stationing of the rockets critically – while in Thuringia it was only noted that many citizens in the Free State were critical of the stationing.

In Thuringia, the parties also have different goals: “The CDU and SPD see themselves in the tradition of ties to the West and Eastern policy. The BSW stands for an uncompromising peace course,” it says. There are different opinions about arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Wagenknecht describes compromise as a mistake

When asked about the reaction of her party colleagues to the Thuringian agreement, Wolf said: “Of course you always want more.” The party’s state executive committee met in the evening. Formal approval from Federal Chief Sahra Wagenknecht was not necessary, but the paper was discussed intensively with her, said Wolf.

Wagenknecht got in touch that evening – and with clear criticism. It was “a mistake not to orientate ourselves on the compromise found in Brandenburg,” she told “Spiegel”. The preamble falls significantly short of the result in Brandenburg. Wagenknecht also expressed criticism towards the MDR. But she also said: “Nevertheless, we will now enter into discussions.”

Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt pointed out that other parties also had federal leaders with whom they had to coordinate. CDU federal leader Merz had recently described Wagenknecht as unwilling to govern. According to Voigt, the Thuringian CDU presidium has already approved the proposal for a preamble in the coalition agreement. At the SPD, state leader Georg Maier was confident before talks with the state executive that the party leadership would support the outcome of the negotiations.

Wolf, who was mayor of the Autostadt Eisenach for twelve years with the Left party ticket, does not see herself as an opponent to Wagenknecht. The biggest difference to Wagenknecht is that Wolf does not see himself primarily as an opposition. In contrast to Wagenknecht, Wolf has already decided – she wants to help govern Thuringia.

“We’ll manage it,” is a sentence that can often be heard from Wolf in Erfurt. Or: “There is no alternative to a stable state government in Thuringia.” Wolf never shows publicly that sentences from Berlin are annoying. She smiles away anger.

“Ms Wagenknecht knows what makes me tick,” Wolf recently told “Zeit online”. And: Wagenknecht is focused on the federal election “and is worried that our pragmatic Thuringian style will destroy their campaign concept of a clear demarcation from other parties. But this worry is unfounded.” Wolf has gathered a number of like-minded people around him in the state executive board and parliamentary group, including former leftists and Greens, but also the entrepreneur Steffen Schütz as co-chairman of the BSW. He is an important confidant.

The exploratory paper was already ready

In Thuringia, the three parties had already agreed on an exploratory paper before the negotiations on the peace passage, which the party executives had already agreed to. According to party leaders, the talks, which covered all policy areas from finance, economics, education to migration, were trusting and serious. A number of joint projects were agreed upon, from starting free school meals to agreeing to comply with the debt brake.

If the CDU, BSW and SPD form a government, they will have 44 of 88 seats in the Thuringian state parliament. To break the stalemate, at least one voice from the opposition is needed.

However, the exploratory paper left out the topic of war and peace and the BSW demand for more diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine. It was originally supposed to be called at the end of the coalition negotiations. However, Wagenknecht did not want to accept that.

After the results of the state elections eight weeks ago in Thuringia, there is hardly any alternative to a blackberry coalition because all parties rule out cooperation with the AfD, the CDU also with the Left. With 32.8 percent, the AfD became the strongest party in a state election in Germany for the first time. She landed well ahead of the CDU, which sees the task of forming a government as its own. The BSW came in third place. The left of Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow, who is still acting, came in fourth place. With a single-digit result, the SPD made it into the state parliament, which the Greens and FDP no longer belong to.