The AfD parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament wants to elect left-wing Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow with a constructive vote of no confidence. The group announced that it had applied for this on Monday afternoon and proposed Björn Höcke as a candidate to its group leader.
The managing director of the AfD parliamentary group in the state parliament, Torben Braga, said that his parliamentary group wanted to create the formal conditions for ending the minority coalition of Bodo Ramelow with the vote of no confidence. The AfD is open to election proposals from other parliamentary groups.
Majority against Ramelow in the Thuringian state parliament required
In its motion, the AfD refers to Article 73 of the Thuringian Constitution. This stipulates that the state parliament can express mistrust of an elected Prime Minister by electing a successor with a majority of its members.
The current Thuringian state parliament has 90 members, so 46 votes would be required. The AfD has 22 MPs. There must be at least three and no more than ten days between the application and the election. It is to be voted secretly. The AfD proposes to vote on Friday (July 23). If the 46 votes do not come together, Ramelow remains Prime Minister.
CDU: Let’s not get involved in AfD games
The CDU announced that it would not get involved in the – quote – “transparent games of the AfD”. The parliamentary managing director of the CDU parliamentary group, Andreas Bühl, tweeted that the state parliament would not elect anyone as prime minister who was being monitored by the constitution protection as a right-wing extremist case. Group leader of the Greens, Astrid Rothe-Beinlich, described the AfD’s request as a provocation. She wrote on Twitter that Höcke was delusional. There is only one answer to that: no.