Parties: BSW says yes to the coalition in Thuringia

In the year the party was founded, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance could be involved in two state governments – after Brandenburg, the Thuringian state association has now given the green light for a coalition. The BSW will be a “strong voice in Thuringia against an ever stronger war logic” and bring in an East German perspective, said state party leader Katja Wolf at a state party conference in Ilmenau. “We want to translate what is discussed at the dinner table into concrete policy.”

Wagenknecht: CDU content “forced”

The first blackberry coalition made up of the CDU, BSW and SPD in Germany could emerge in Thuringia. The CDU has already agreed to the contract, which was negotiated hard over weeks, and the SPD has until Monday lunchtime to make a membership decision. Wagenknecht himself had promoted the contract in a speech before the vote. “Agree with the coalition agreement today. I think it’s a good compromise,” she called out to BSW party friends. The BSW imposed its signature and “forced things on the CDU that the CDU would never have done on its own,” she said.

In Brandenburg, the BSW and SPD had already cleared the way for a red-purple coalition on Friday. Dietmar Woidke (SPD) is to be elected Prime Minister on Wednesday, Mario Voigt (CDU) on Thursday in Thuringia. But unlike in Brandenburg, the coalition in Thuringia will not have its own majority in the state parliament. The CDU, BSW and SPD together have 44 of 88 seats in parliament – so there would be a stalemate with the Left and the AfD in the opposition.

Does AfD deliver majority in MP election?

This could become a problem in the prime ministerial election. According to the Thuringian constitution, an absolute majority is required in the first and second round of voting, i.e. 45 votes. Theoretically, it is conceivable that the AfD Voigt, which the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as right-wing extremist, will vote in one of these ballots and that their voting behavior will be decisive. In a third round of voting, Voigt could probably expect an election based solely on the votes of his targeted coalition, because then the relative majority is enough: whoever has the most votes is elected.

Wagenknecht sees no obstacle in electing the head of government with AfD votes. “We can’t give the AfD the decision as to whether someone becomes prime minister. Handing over power to Mr. Höcke would be completely crazy,” she said on the sidelines of the party conference, referring to AfD state leader Björn Höcke. Later, in a press conference, when asked whether Voigt could then accept the election, she said: “Of course Mr. Voigt can accept the election.” She pointed out that Voigt would have been elected in a third round anyway. “So it doesn’t depend on whether the AfD will vote for him.”

Wagenknecht praised the financial leeway that was negotiated in the Thuringian coalition agreement. In Saxony, people “ran into walls” when it came to the issue. There was no agreement with the SPD on the issue of migration policy.

Negotiations on a blackberry coalition failed in Dresden, and Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) is now trying to forge a minority government made up of the CDU and SPD.

In Thuringia, too, the formation of a government was in jeopardy. Wagenknecht had described an exploratory paper as a mistake and called for improvements; the relationship between her and Thuringia’s BSW boss Wolf was considered strained.

Before the vote in Ilmenau, both sent conciliatory signals. “It hurts my soul when people try to drive a wedge between Sahra and me,” said Wolf. “We are two strong women who are so close in terms of content.” Wagenknecht said attempts to “manufacture” a difference would be in vain.

Wagenknecht justified the criticism of the exploratory results – especially on the subject of war and peace. “Yes, we weren’t happy with what was in the preamble. I wasn’t either,” she said. However, the pressure from the party meant that the BSW negotiators in Thuringia were later able to achieve significantly more. “We were all tense that we couldn’t do anything wrong here,” said Wagenknecht.

In the course of the dispute, around 20 members were accepted into the party bypassing the state executive board, which annoyed Wolf and Thuringia’s BSW co-boss Steffen Schütz. Wolf now said: “Don’t worry about it, it won’t happen to us again. Those were a bit of growing pains for a young party.”

Meanwhile, the young party is breathing down its neck with the new Bundestag election, which is scheduled to take place in February and not in the fall as originally planned. The BSW has recently weakened in surveys, which could mean that it has to worry about entering the Bundestag.