parties
Ramelow criticizes the equation between the Left and the AfD
Bodo Ramelow (Left) believes it is out of place that his party is being “demonized”. photo
© Martin Schutt/dpa
Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt has also decided on no cooperation with the Left and the AfD. Left Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow warns against such an equation.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left) criticized CDU leader Mario Voigt for trivializing the issue AfD accused of equating it with the left. Anyone who, like Voigt, mentions the Left and the AfD in the same breath is “not learning,” Ramelow told the dpa in Erfurt. This trivializes the Thuringian AfD, which the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies as proven right-wing extremist. “And my party is being demonized. I think that’s misplaced.”
Ramelow was reacting to Voigt’s rejection of the Left and AfD at the state representative meeting in Ilmenau, where the CDU had drawn up its list of candidates for the state election on September 1st on Saturday and elected Voigt as the top candidate. In his application speech, Voigt said: “With us there will be no coalition with the Left, just as there will be no coalition with the AfD.”
In doing so, Voigt also indirectly countered discussions within the party that, given the likely difficult majority situation after the state elections on September 1st, the CDU would have to take new paths in order to prevent an AfD prime minister. A three-way battle between the parties is expected in the election: According to the polls, Voigt is between the AfD top candidate Björn Höcke and Ramelow, with the AfD clearly ahead.
Ramelow said that the CDU does not have to lead a coalition election campaign. The differences between the Left and the CDU are too great for that. But it is important to strengthen democracy. “I will do everything for it,” emphasized Ramelow.