AfD: Lieberknecht calls on the CDU to deal with Höcke’s party in a new way

The former Thuringian CDU Prime Minister Christine Lieberknecht has called for her party to deal more pragmatically with the AfD. She says that she is still in favor of the CDU not actively working with the AfD star. However, you have to talk to the party about the processes in the state parliament. “It is neither democratic nor productive to deny the AfD its parliamentary rights,” she explained.

Lieberknecht specifically called for the party led in Thuringia by right-wing extremist Björn Höcke to be taken into account for parliamentary positions. “The AfD had no right to be president of the state parliament, but it is entitled to a place in the parliamentary presidency,” she said.

“If the parliamentary group nominates a politician who has no criminal record or is openly extremist as vice-president, the CDU should elect him,” she demanded. In addition, the blocking minority requires that the AfD be involved in the election of constitutional judges.

At the end of September, the state parliament, with a majority of the CDU, BSW, SPD and Left Party, deleted the largest parliamentary group’s exclusive right to make proposals from the state parliament’s rules of procedure. Parliament then elected CDU MP Thadäus König as state parliament president instead of AfD candidate Wiebke Muhsal.

Muhsal was legally convicted in 2018 for fraud against parliament. She also failed in the election of vice president. The AfD has now nominated Jörg Prophet for this position. The director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Nazi memorials, Jens-Christian Wagner, .

Lieberknecht also opposed a ban on the AfD. “I don’t think a ban would be successful,” she said. She takes seriously that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, for example, has classified the Thuringian AfD as proven right-wing extremist, and she also takes note of the extremist statements made by leaders like Höcke. “But the extent to which this extremism can be transferred to the entire federal party is not clear to me,” she said.

The ex-Prime Minister also expressed fundamental objections. “Parties may be banned – but people’s thoughts cannot be banned,” she said. “Even if the AfD no longer existed, its voters would still be there.”

Lieberknecht called on the CDU to engage in a “hard fight” with the AfD and to confront them on content. This also includes the change of course in migration policy that the Union has already taken.

“There are grievances that affect not only AfD voters, but also people who would never vote for the AfD,” said the former head of government. “They also see that we have reached our limits when it comes to integration and that something has to change.”

After a long career as a minister and president of the state parliament, Lieberknecht was Prime Minister of Thuringia between 2009 and 2014. The former Protestant pastor was already a member of the CDU bloc party during the GDR era. She has also been promoting pragmatic cooperation between the Union and the Left for years.