SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert has attacked CDU leader Friedrich Merz for his appeal to East Germans to vote. “Friedrich Merz should stop lecturing East German voters. The times when the ballot paper was already filled out in the booth and the result was already known in advance are fortunately over,” Kühnert told the news portal “t-online”.
Merz had recommended that voters of traffic light parties vote for the CDU in the state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia in September. In a summer interview on the ZDF program “Berlin direct”, he justified his appeal for the election with a strong AfD and the possible complicated majority situation after the election. He appealed verbatim: Those who are considering voting for the SPD, FDP or Greens, “all of which are in single figures and possibly all three will remain below five percent, I can only ask them to vote for the CDU now in this situation”.
If voters wanted clarity and a stable government, there would only be the CDU in Thuringia and Saxony, “which would prevent such a difficult situation from arising.”
Kühnert now sharply contradicts Merz: “The people of East Germany fought for the freedom to make their own decisions almost 35 years ago. In Dresden and Erfurt, no one needs a know-it-all from the West to explain to them which voting decision is supposedly the right one.” With his “blood, sweat and tears” rhetoric, Merz is trying to conceal the fact that he is at odds with his East German regional associations on key policy areas, says Kühnert.
The SPD is using its program and experience to win the trust of voters in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia. “We have proven over decades that we do not shy away from responsibility and are able to compromise among democrats. It is also clear that without a strong SPD in the state governments, the lights will quickly go out when it comes to pensions, wages and public services.”
