The CDU had agreed not to work with either the AfD or the Left Party. But Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Günther says: The parties cannot be equated. The left does not pose a threat to democracy.
Shortly before the CDU federal party conference, Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther spoke out in favor of his party’s more open approach to the Left Party. “We do not have any common cause with the AfD, neither in personnel nor in factual issues. We as the CDU Schleswig-Holstein are absolutely consistent in this,” said Günther. “But you can’t equate the Left and the AfD with each other.”
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow is not a threat to democracy. “He is a smart person who I respect and who works with all his colleagues in the Prime Minister’s Conference,” said Günther about the Left Party politician.
The Thuringian AfD, on the other hand, whose chairman is Björn Höcke, is classified and monitored by the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution as definitely right-wing extremist.
Complicated situation in Thuringia
A new state parliament will be elected in Thuringia on September 1st. The AfD always comes in first place in surveys, but recently it has lost support. The CDU becomes the second strongest force in the surveys.
Because of the majority situation, the political situation in Thuringia is considered extremely complicated: Ramelow governs in a minority government together with the SPD and the Greens. On individual issues such as the budget, the CDU voted with the government. The question of how majorities could be formed in the federal state after the election and what a government could look like is completely open.
Günther: Don’t strive for a coalition with the left
The CDU had agreed on an incompatibility resolution against cooperation with the AfD and the Left Party. The distance between the CDU and the Left Party is extremely large. The distance between the CDU and the Left Party is extremely large – he would not seek a coalition with the Left, said Günther. “But there is a difference whether you have someone like Björn Höcke as the top candidate and a party that is judged by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Thuringia and two other countries to be definitely right-wing extremist, or a party that has been the incumbent prime minister for many years.”
Günther added: “I certainly imagine politically – like the CDU Thuringia – different directions for Thuringia, but: Democracy in Thuringia has neither been abolished in the last ten years, nor has it been endangered. Things are different now with the AfD. “
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann also reiterated his rejection of possible government formation with the Left Party. The CDU’s decision is that “we will not enter into a coalition with the successor party to the SED,” said Linnemann in Berlin. In response to a question, he said that he does not expect any debates about this at the party conference, which begins on Monday in Berlin.