As recently as Thursday, Thuringia’s Prime Minister saw clear principles for democrats: “If you want to protect parliamentarianism, you should never put yourself in the hands of this political force,” said Bodo Ramelow (left) given the possibility that the AfD in Berlin would join the CDU -Candidate Kai Wegner could have helped in the third ballot into the office of Governing Mayor. Ramelow addressed his words to the CDU and SPD in Berlin, but might have preferred to address them to their own governing coalition in Thuringia.
Because there voted on Friday, of all things, the AfD in the state parliament together with red-red-green. It was about the assignment for a committee of inquiry into the state government’s personnel policy. This has been criticized for weeks because, according to the Court of Auditors, it ignored the criteria for selecting the best when hiring state secretaries. The state government is said to have systematically and seriously violated the rules for hiring civil servants; the public prosecutor’s office in Erfurt is also investigating the initial suspicion of infidelity.
The CDU and FDP had therefore requested a committee of inquiry on the subject, which they wanted to decide at a special meeting in May. The parliamentary manager of the CDU parliamentary group, Andreas Buhl, said it was about “probably the biggest infidelity scandal in the history of the Free State”. The government factions had welcomed the establishment of a committee of inquiry in principle, but were of the opinion that this should also deal with the hiring practices of the CDU-led predecessor governments.
The government factions take the opposition by surprise
SPD MP Diana Lehmann accused the CDU parliamentary group of putting on a spectacle. The CDU parliamentary group put on a show and tried to keep the topic in the public eye for as long as possible with a slice of tactics. Red-Red-Green doesn’t want any more delays on the subject. There is no doubt that the state government has done a good job.
On Friday, the government factions put the issue on the agenda of the state parliament and surprised the CDU and FDP with an amendment that expands the investigation mandate. A parliamentary majority was required for its adoption, which the Left, SPD and Greens together do not have. And the CDU and FDP voted against extending the investigation mandate.
Is the firewall still up? After all, there will be an election next year
The AfD parliamentary group had already signaled on Friday before the vote that it would support both the appointment of the committee of inquiry and the red-red-green amendment. The nepotism was not invented by red-red-green, but only continued, said AfD MP Stefan Möller. “We are there with full pleasure to enlightenment.”
Although the CDU had ruled out any cooperation with the AfD in an incompatibility decision, the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich was elected Prime Minister in February 2020 with the votes of the CDU and the AfD. He resigned a short time later, and the political turmoil also prompted the then CDU chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to resign. Since then, the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party have been watching very carefully how stable the firewall between the CDU and the AfD in Thuringia is. A new state parliament will be elected there next year.