Status: 13.10.2021 8:08 p.m.
The SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania wants to start coalition negotiations with the Left Party. This is what Prime Minister Schwesig said after discussions with the party committees. The two parties would have a comfortable majority in the state parliament.
The SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania wants to change its government partner after 15 years. Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig, who with her SPD had clearly won the state elections at the end of September, announced coalition negotiations with the Left Party. The CDU, which has been co-ruling up to now, would thus remain in the opposition.
Schwesig: Most of the intersections with the Left Party
In the evening Schwesig first briefed the state executive, party council and the state parliamentary group on the progress of the explorations before she appeared before the press. After the election, the negotiating group she led held talks with the CDU and Left Party as well as the Greens and FDP as possible government partners.
The decision was made unanimously, said Schwesig. In the exploratory talks there were most of the overlaps with the Left Party. This is a partner “with whom we can advance our country together,” said the Prime Minister. In addition, the SPD could realize most of its core issues in this constellation.
From 1998 to 2006 the SPD had already ruled in the northeast together with the PDS / Die Linke as a junior partner. The alliance forged at the time by Harald Ringstorff against the will of the Federal SPD caused discussions as the first red-red state government in Germany. In the new parliament, which has 79 members, Red-Red has a stable majority with 43 seats, and the SPD alone has 34 members.
Back chairs at the CDU
With the intended change of government partner, Schwesig is possibly also reacting to the desolate situation at the CDU, which had suffered heavy electoral defeats in the state and federal government and is looking for new executives. Schwesig had always emphasized that he wanted to form a stable government with reliable partners. That seems more likely to her with the left than with a CDU, in which rather inexperienced forces moved to the top of the parliamentary group and in which the party chairmanship is only provisionally occupied.
In the left, despite an equally sobering election result at the state level, there had been no chair shift. Although the party achieved a single-digit result for the first time with 9.9 percent, the influential top candidate Simone Oldenburg was unanimously re-elected as parliamentary leader. The former headmistress is considered the first candidate for a ministerial office. With nine MPs left, the left is likely to lay claim to only two departments. With the same number of the eight ministries so far, this would mean one more for the SPD.
CDU announces tough opposition course
The CDU reacted with little surprise to the SPD’s decision. “Even before the election it was clear that the SPD had little interest in continuing the coalition,” declared the incumbent state chairman, Eckardt Rehberg. “In terms of content, there were no irreconcilable contradictions between the SPD and the CDU in my opinion, not even in the case of a collective bargaining law related to state contracts.” The left was apparently much cheaper politically and personally than the CDU, Rehberg speculated.
The chairman of the CDU parliamentary group, Franz-Robert Liskow, announced a tough opposition course. “The aim of our opposition work will not be to open rifts, but we will not spare anyone either,” he said. “Our aim is to actively control government work, to offer alternatives in terms of content, but also to deal with contradictions.” The parliamentary group is well prepared in terms of personnel and content for the next five years.