Formation of a government in Saxony: Kretschmer's rocky road to Kenya

It was the first significant crack that the CDU had to hear after last Sunday's Saxon state election: The conservative Matthias Roessler had to face on Friday in the nomination for president of a party-internal counter-candidate. The Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer intervened in the meeting of the CDU parliamentary group and spoke out personally for Roessler.

Roessler survived the fight candidate. It was a signal from the party leadership to the Conservatives in the faction: The CDU leader Kretschmer must close the ranks to lead his party in the Kenya coalition, an alliance of the CDU, Greens and SPD. Roessler, who has been sitting in the state parliament since 1990 and has already held several offices, repeatedly expressed concerns about a government participation of the Greens. In the election campaign, he had the arch-conservative ex-constitutional protection chief Hans-Georg Maaßen appear in the constituency and campaigned openly for a minority government, which would have meant a collaboration with the AfD.

State election Saxony 2019

Preliminary final result

List voices Result

Shares in percent

CDU

32.1

-7.3

The left

10.4

-8.5

SPD

7.7

-4.7

AFD

27.5

+17.7

green

8.6

+2.9

FDP

4.5

+0.7

Free voters

3.4

+1.8

allocation of seats

Total: 119

Majority: 60 seats

14

10

12

45

38

The left (14)

SPD (10)

Green (12)

CDU (45)

AfD (38)

Source: Provincial Returning Officer

Results in detail

As a betrayed backbencher Roessler would probably have caused more trouble, so the calculus. Whether so that all doubters are reassured in their own ranks, however, is questionable - especially as the substantive disputes are still pending.

"There is really a need for a departure"

On Saturday, both the CDU state executive committee and the Green Party party council voted to launch exploratory talks. The SPD decided to do so already on Monday. "We want to give this country a stable government," said Kretschmer on Saturday in Riesa, Saxony, where the CDU committee met. In Dresden, the Green Party candidate Wolfram Günther replied after the meeting of the party council: "There is really a need for a departure to come."

DPA / Sebastian Kahnert

Mathias Weiland, Managing Director of the Saxon Greens, as well as the top candidates Wolfram Günther and Katja Meier at the state party council.

A first contact of the possible new partners already existed this week. In the middle of October, a party congress of the Greens should decide whether coalition talks are really to be held.

While the delicate questions were left out during the delicate approach, the quarrel could soon break out:

• Will the coal compromise stay with the year 2038 or will the Greens shake the numbers and fight for the earlier exit? Kretschmer spoke in the Bundestag election campaign 2017 still from the coal in the year 2045.
• SPD and Greens wish "longer joint learning" at Saxony's schools; So they do not want students to be separated from the fourth grade onwards in secondary schools. The SPD even declared this to be the "red line" for coalition building. The CDU defends itself vehemently against it.
• The Saxon police law has tightened the black-red state government in the past legislative period. While the Greens sought a judicial review of the law, the CDU campaigned for further tightening in the election campaign.

The potential for conflict in the negotiations is therefore high. The decisive factor will be what the potential government partners negotiate in the coalition agreement. In Saxony-Anhalt, where a Kenya coalition has been governing since 2016, the coalition agreement has become a sort of requirement specification and is itself almost treated as if it were law. This is due to the rather difficult relationship of the contracting parties, who have especially teamed up to face the AfD.

Ramelow: Government alone against AfD does not lead to anything good

Thuringia's left-wing Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow warned his neighbors in Saxony now against seeing the Kenya coalition in Dresden as such an emergency alliance against the AfD. "Forced coalition as a defense against the AfD does not lead to anything good," he said. He advised Kretschmer, therefore, "to communicate about culture, the culture of dealing with each other." The bigger one should not force the smaller one into anything.

Kretschmer's task in the coming weeks will therefore be to win the Greens' confidence, which will only work with concessions. The nomination of the conservative Matthias Rößlers as President of the Landtag is likely to have triggered the opposite of the potential partners.