AfD politician Björn Höcke is running for the prime minister election in Thuringia. But the choice was on the brink - because of suspected coronavirus.
- The Thuringian AfD presents its party leader Björn Höcke for the prime minister election .
- The nomination was submitted on Monday.
- A suspected corona virus is causing a stir in the Thuringian state CDU.
Update 10:20 pm: At a very bad time for Bodo Ramelow , who wants to be elected Prime Minister of Thuringia again on Wednesday, there is a story that the Bild newspaper published on Tuesday evening.
At the weekend a conference of the party "Die Linke" in Kassel already had a participant speak. This said, probably with an ironically meant undertone, that the energy transition must also be shaped "after a revolution if we shot one percent of the rich" . In doing so, she apparently wanted to draw attention to the fact that the energy transition is important regardless of the question of distribution in society. Some clapped in the hall after this sentence, most remained silent. Left-wing party leader Bernd Riexinger , who sat on the podium, did not react at first - and then said according to the picture : "We will not shoot them, we will use them for useful work." Critics in turn interpret this sentence as an indication of the labor camps there was, for example, in the Soviet Union. Millions of prisoners died there.
CSU general secretary Markus Blume is outraged. Compared to the picture, he said: “After this video, Bernd Riexinger has to explain himself and take the consequences. The resignation from the party presidency is inevitable. ” CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak speaks of a“ hideous attitude ”. He sees it as confirmed that the Christian Democrats cannot work with the left.
Ramelow now clearly distances himself from the derailment at the Left Conference: “Anyone who wants to shoot people and who swarms about a revolution with or through violence has nothing in common with my canon of values. Such a statement at a conference of my party is unacceptable and should never have been passed over with a smile! ”
Here you can see a section of the request to speak:
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I find it very comforting that the party leader of the left converts the shooting of the rich into charitable work. This is how you can see the human compass of the Left Party at its strategy congress in Kassel
A post shared by Ralf Schuler (@ ralf.schuler) on Mar 3, 2020 at 2:27 pm PST
Coronavirus suspected: Prime Minister election in Thuringia was on the brink
Update 8.10 p.m .: As the picture reports, the suspected coronavirus has not been confirmed by a member of parliament in Thuringia. The prime ministerial election can thus take place on Wednesday.
Update at 16:29: A suspicion of coronavirus in the state parliament jeopardizes the prime minister election in Thuringia, which is planned for this Wednesday. A 56-year-old CDU member of parliament is in quarantine. A test result was expected for Tuesday evening. If the suspicion is confirmed, the election of a new head of government scheduled for Wednesday will be postponed, according to state parliament president Birgit Keller (left). Then it cannot be ruled out that the CDU man has already infected other politicians.
The parliamentarian is one of the four CDU MPs who concluded a stability agreement with the left, the SPD and the Greens in several rounds of negotiations in the state parliament between 17 and 21 February, as was confirmed in the state parliament in Erfurt.
Thuringia: Corona suspicion in the CDU - Is tomorrow's election now on the brink?
Update at 3:28 p.m .: According to President Birgit Keller , the Prime Minister election in the Thuringian state parliament, which is planned for this Wednesday, will be postponed if the suspicion of a corona infection is confirmed by a CDU MP. The scheduled state parliament session would be canceled in this case because a positive test result could not rule out that the parliamentarian had also infected other MPs, said Keller of the German Press Agency in Erfurt.
Holding a state parliament session in these circumstances runs the risk of putting other people at risk. "We have to react. We take the situation seriously. ”According to the Ministry of Health, the test result on the suspected case is expected on Tuesday evening. "When it is there, we will decide without panic, " said Keller.
Update at 2.45 p.m .: Tomorrow's prime minister election in Thuringia, the candidacy of left-wing politician Bodo Ramelow and AfD right wing Björn Höcke clearly conflict with each other. In general, the AfD's move is surprising and puts enormous pressure on the Liberals and Christian Democrats. But of course there is also a political calculation on the part of the AfD behind the campaign.
Thuringia: Corona suspicion in the CDU - Is tomorrow's election on the brink?
Update at 1.40 p.m .: Now the corona virus may also have reached the Thuringian CDU . There was a suspected Corona case in the ranks of the CDU parliamentary group there immediately before the Prime Minister election . The suspicion of an infection with the novel virus is currently being clarified, said a parliamentary group spokesman on Tuesday in Erfurt. According to a state parliament spokesman, a laboratory result is expected in the late afternoon .
If the suspected case is confirmed, the Thuringian Prime Minister election could be on the brink . Particularly tricky: The CDU MP, now considered a suspected case, was still at the parliamentary meeting in Erfurt on Monday, at which the 21 MPs elected a new parliamentary board. The CDU politician in question is now in quarantine, according to information from the Thuringian General . He was on a skiing holiday in Italy during the winter holidays with an infected 57-year-old man from the Saale-Orla district, said a spokesman for the State Health Ministry in Erfurt. But the politician shows no symptoms.
Update at 13.09: The Thuringian FDP faction has a clever plan for tomorrow's Prime Minister election: To express their rejection of both the left-wing politician Bodo Ramelow and the Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke , the free liberals want the plenary hall left on Wednesday at the election , reports the dpa and relies on image information.
Thuringia election: FDP state group wants to leave the plenary hall
"If you want to document that you reject both candidates, you cannot take part in the ballot," said Thomas Philipp Reiter, spokesman for the Thuringian FDP parliamentary group. Reiter argued that the ballot papers would not include no votes . "Abstention is not a no," he emphasized. According to him, there is also a parliamentary decision on the planned move by the Thuringian FDP.
Update from March 3, 2020, 10:38 a.m .:
Thuringia's new CDU parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt has rejected demands by the Young Union (JU) that his party's representatives should leave the plenary hall when the prime minister is elected . "MPs are not elected to shirk responsibility," said Voigt in Tuesday's decision in the MDR. He went on to say that this applies "for the election act and for any other factual decision afterwards". Therefore, leaving the room is absolutely not an option .
Thuringia election: JU boss requests the state CDU to leave the plenary hall
The JU chairman Tilman Kuban had previously asked the MPs to leave the plenary hall in the election of the prime minister in Thuringia.
First message from March 2, 2020:
Erfurt - Björn Höcke , head of the AfD in Thuringia, wants to run for the Prime Minister election on Wednesday *. The party’s election proposal had been submitted to the state administration on Monday, the AfD parliamentary group in Erfurt said. Höcke, one of the leading figures in the right-wing AfD "wing" , is competing against left-wing politician Bodo Ramelow.
After the uproar over the election of the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich * , who was elected about a month ago with votes from the CDU, Liberals and AfD and resigned only a day later after a wave of outrage, the previous Prime Minister Ramelow wants to * Re-elect on Wednesday in the state parliament.
Thuringia election: CDU and FDP have rejected offers from the AfD, says an AfD managing director
All offers of the AfD "for a cooperation of the existing bourgeois majority" in the Thuringian state parliament and a termination of red-red-green have been rejected by the CDU and FDP , said the parliamentary director of the AfD faction Torben Braga. " Should Bodo Ramelow receive more than the 42 votes of the red-red-green camp next Wednesday and be elected Prime Minister *, it should be clear to every viewer that these votes did not come from the AfD ." The CDU and FDP would have broken their promise not to elect Ramelow and not to allow red-red-green to continue, Braga said.
Ramelow's red-red-green alliance , with which he had ruled for the past five years, lacks four votes for a majority in the new state parliament . That is why he is dependent on votes from the CDU or FDP in the first two ballots in the Prime Minister election. Ramelow does not want to be elected to office with AfD votes.
Thuringia election: The CDU apparently wants to choose Ramelow "not actively" as head of government
Officially , the state CDU remains on the line so far that it will "not actively" elect the left-wing politician as head of government. The background is a party convention of the federal CDU from 2018, which prohibits cooperation with the Left Party and AfD. It is speculated, however, whether several CDU MPs could vote for Ramelow in the first ballot in the first ballot. In the third ballot, the simple majority would suffice.
Red-Red-Green already reached a so-called stability agreement with the CDU , which provides for limited, project-related cooperation until a new election in April 2021. This is how Thuringia is supposed to emerge from the crisis that has prevailed in the country since the uproar in the last prime ministerial election. However, it does not contain any stipulations on the choice of Ramelow or any other contractual arrangement for tolerance.
AFP, dpa
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
List of rubric lists: © picture alliance / dpa / Martin Schutt
