Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow is not ruling out a three-party coalition with the CDU and the Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) alliance after the state elections in September. “First of all, I am fighting to ensure that my party receives the mandate from the voters to form the government on September 1,” the Left politician told the “Rheinische Post” and the Bonn “General-Anzeiger” on Thursday.
The only party that the Left will not work with is the AfD. “I will work with all other parties to form a government that can gain a majority.”
Ramelow pointed out that, according to the latest polls, there are “currently no discernible majorities based on a reliable pattern.” The fact that the state CDU demonizes the Left Party but does not rule out cooperation with the BSW is “downright absurd.” Most of the founding members of the BSW, like its namesake Sahra Wagenknecht, had previously belonged to the Left Party.
When asked whether he could broker a coalition with the BSW in his party after Wagenknecht and her followers left the Left Party, Ramelow explained: “If you look at the current polls, it’s a paradox: the BSW is gaining ground. But Sahra Wagenknecht is a phantom candidate.” She was also a phantom candidate in the European and local elections. “She can be seen on all the posters, but she is not running for office anywhere in Thuringia.”
Around two and a half months before the state elections in Thuringia, a current survey by the opinion research institute Infratest Dimap suggests that forming a government will be difficult. According to the survey, the AfD is currently clearly in first place with 28 percent. According to the survey, the CDU has 23 percent, followed closely by the BSW with 21 percent. The Left would only get eleven percent and the SPD seven percent. The Greens and FDP would no longer be represented in the state parliament.
Since all other parties, including the BSW, have so far ruled out an alliance with the AfD, the only option in the event of such a result would be for the BSW to form a government. The CDU has not ruled out such an alliance either.
Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt told the Berlin newspaper “Tagesspiegel” (Thursday) that he sees more overlap in terms of content between his party and the BSW than with the Greens, SPD and Left. However, he considers the alliance “to be a big black box”. There are hardly any candidates from the party so far. “But what I hear from the BSW on the topics of migration and education here in Thuringia is closer to reality than what I hear from the Greens, Left or SPD,” said Voigt, who wants to become prime minister in the state elections in the fall.
