After the election in Thuringia, a complicated government formation is emerging. The left became the strongest force at 31 percent; but that is no longer enough for the previous red-red-green alliance. The AfD gained 23.4 percent, making it the second strongest force. The Christian Democrats suffered heavy losses and won 21.8 percent of the vote. Now we have to search for new partners.
The left is open to "all democratic parties," the CDU at least ready for talks with the left. The AfD disagrees. AfD leader Alexander Gauland has warned the Union against cooperation with the Left Party. "That's a good idea for the CDU to finally go under," said Gauland the day after the state election in the federal press conference.
The Thuringian CDU leader Mike Mohring also wants to talk with the left about a cooperation, after which he had excluded them in the election campaign as well as an alliance with the AfD. The CDU parliamentary group vice mayor Michael Heym, however, did not exclude any cooperation with the AfD. All options should be examined - also CDU, FDP and AfD could form a majority, he told the station MDR.
Gauland sees Höcke "in the middle of the party"
Like Gauland, Höcke also warned the CDU against a coalition with the left. If she decides to do so, according to Höcke, she would follow the example of the Italian Christian Democrats and end up in political insignificance.
The Thuringian AfD chairman sees his own party as a potential beneficiary of such a development: "Then we could start the political legacy." Höcke said that his party was still open to a coalition with the CDU.
Gauland varied his statement from the election night: Höcke was "in the middle of the party," said Gauland in Berlin. The day before, Gauland had said, "Well, Herr Höcke is not pushing the party to the right." Herr Höcke is the center of the party. "
Höcke is the founder of the right-wing national "wing" in the AfD. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced in January that it classifies the "wing" and the youth organization "Young Alternative" - unlike the entire party - both as a "suspected case" in the field of right-wing extremism. In an interview with SPIEGEL, the President of the Constitution Protection Commission Thomas Haldenwang recently said that the "wing" is becoming "ever more extremist".
Höcke announced that he wanted to give his course in the federal party more validity: "I also believe that this solidary patriotism can and should be the model of success for the entire party if we want to become an all-German people's party in the next few years." Whether he would run for a post in the party executive at the federal party convention of the AfD in late November, he left open on demand.
