In the state elections in Thuringia, the AfD could become stronger than ever before. The left-wing Prime Minister Ramelow and CDU challenger Voigt are trying their own strategies against it – and differentiating themselves from each other.
“Wow,” says Bodo Ramelow. Thuringia’s Prime Minister is on a site visit to Bad Salzungen. In a depression he looks into a deep crack in the ground. Rock salt lies 56 meters below. And that is draining. The railway embankment recently sank half a meter. Without a bridge, trains will soon no longer be able to run here.
The crack isn’t the only one Ramelow is currently encountering. In the country of Germany’s only left-wing head of government and a red-red-green minority government, the AfD is polling at 30 percent or more. Monday protests meet demonstrations against right-wing extremism. Just two days earlier there was a suspected arson attack on the house of a demo organizer.
Ramelow says that society is currently “drifting apart in an unimaginable dynamic.” The rift cannot be mended until the state elections in September. But he is trying to “build bridges”.
Three-way combat should be a duel
In Thuringia there is the rare situation where three men have the chance to be Prime Minister after the state elections at the beginning of September. In addition to Ramelow, these are Björn Höcke and Mario Voigt, the parliamentary group and state leaders of the AfD and CDU.
Höcke is the key figure behind the radicalization of the AfD. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been monitoring him as a right-wing extremist since 2020. According to Höcke, it takes “well-tempered cruelty” so that millions of people who are not integrated from the AfD’s perspective leave Germany. Höcke is one reason why thousands are taking to the streets in Thuringia.
There is still a fight over who will face Höcke at the forefront. In 2019, the Left Party called the state election a duel with the Höcke AfD with “Bodo or Barbarism”. Today it is Voigt who told the newspaper “Welt” that in 2024 it would “significantly” be about the “CDU or AfD”. Ramelow is therefore left out.
Ramelow counters such considerations with his popularity ratings as Prime Minister. They are significantly higher than those of Höcke and Voigt, but were also better. The same applies to his party’s poll numbers: the Left now ranks behind the CDU in Thuringia.
Voigt wants to ensure order
Apolda, a week before Ramelow’s tour of Bad Salzungen. The CDU is holding its political Ash Wednesday in the city brewery. Party leader Friedrich Merz came – and Mario Voigt. Apolda, this is a “woke-free zone,” shouts Voigt from the lectern. “The Germany feeling” is still right here.
Voigt has a professorship for digital transformation and politics at a Berlin university. He was a sought-after campaign strategist for a long time. He thought long in advance about how he wanted to position his CDU in this election.
But Voigt still has to prove himself as a frontman. He almost shouts as he works through reds and greens. These would patronize citizens and overburden them with bureaucracy and would represent uncontrolled immigration. “They’re destroying us,” said Voigt. The CDU’s promise? “We’re putting things back in order.”
Voigt only joins the AfD towards the end. “Höcke is the biggest risk for Thuringia.” And what actually qualifies him for the office of Prime Minister? “That he can quote Goebbels well?” asks Voigt rhetorically.
Duel with Höcke planned
Nevertheless, Voigt wants to face the alleged Goebbels impersonator in an open duel. Voigt and Höcke will soon discuss Europe in front of TV cameras. They agreed to meet on X for this purpose.
In the CDU they know that Voigt is playing with fire. Höcke is an accomplished populist. It is also difficult for journalists to ask. In 2020, Höcke demonstrated the CDU when his MPs voted for Thomas Kemmerich as Prime Minister instead of their own candidate – thus embarrassing the CDU and FDP. Nevertheless, there is support for Voigt’s maneuvers both internally and publicly, for example from Merz.
It has the advantage for both sides that they can further escalate the election campaign into a duel. When it comes to the budget or migration policy in the state parliament, Voigt and Höcke already primarily address each other.
Left relies on Ramelow
Bodo Ramelow doesn’t think much of the duel. He doesn’t understand Mario Voigt, he says on the sidelines of his tour through Bad Salzungen. Höcke stands for what led Germany to ruin. “I don’t want to give him the chance to put himself in a normal light,” said Ramelow.
But the same applies to him: “We are dealing with the challenge of a fascist party and will not give in to it.” The Left could associate the name Ramelow with stability, perhaps even security, in the election campaign. After all, he somehow kept Thuringia going for four years, even with a minority government – also in cooperation with Voigt.
But Ramelow and security? In Bad Salzungen he jumps onto the last pile of earth on the bank at a blocked flood outlet area, while even residents look down from a distance.
At the subsequent public consultation, Ramelow ended his remarks about the AfD and Höcke by saying that anyone who was not familiar with the Epistle to the Corinthians should “shut up” for the alleged defense of the Christian West. Ten minutes later he says: “I’m already annoyed that I just said ‘shut up’.”
Let him be what he is. This is the message from the energy bundle Ramelow to the people in the room. And more is being done in Thuringia than anywhere else, for example in rural areas. If everyone knew that the largest pizza oven in Europe is located here and that the NASA rover with sensors from Jena is driving over Mars, everyone would be better off. It can be that simple – or that easy you can make it yourself.
Democracy protests inspire parties
Until the election on September 1st, it will also depend on how those people who are now taking to the streets against the AfD decide. Hundreds have recently demonstrated even in smaller cities. For the first time, companies are increasingly positioning themselves publicly. With “Cosmopolitan Thuringia” there is a broad alliance for democracy.
This inspires Ramelow, who welcomes demonstrations and initiative. But this also inspires the CDU and Mario Voigt, although their relationship remains ambivalent. On the one hand, he took part in a demo himself and repeatedly made it clear how much he rejects the AfD and Höcke. On the other hand, he passed laws in the state parliament with AfD votes.
Bodo Ramelow says he sees himself as “part of civil society” – not as its candidate. And he doesn’t mingle with “Cosmopolitan Thuringia” “to see my face on ARD in the evenings.” A tip against Mario Voigt, who took part in the alliance’s public launch.
But no matter how the state election turns out: Voigt and Ramelow will likely continue to depend on each other afterwards. It currently seems impossible that coalitions such as red-red-green or CDU-SPD-FDP could be enough again. The responsibility of the actor would then lie with the party whose party is in the lead in the end.