The Thuringian CDU comes one week after the election defeat not to rest. As the "Ostthüringer Zeitung" first reported, a paper has now appeared in CDU circles, calling 17 party officials to the readiness of their country party to talk with the AfD.
Earlier last week, the deputy leader of the Thuringian state parliament, Michael Heym, had already brought a possible cooperation with the AfD into play. The new paper is titled: "Appeal of Conservative Union Members in Thuringia". Among them are the names of several local politicians - but also of a member of parliament, Jörg Kellner. "I have not yet authorized this paper in this form," he told SPIEGEL, but confirmed that there is such an elaboration of an appeal in the party.
In the basic orientation, he agrees with the request too. "We have to talk to everyone," Kellner said. He excludes a coalition with Left and AfD, nonetheless: "We've seen what happens when you leave the AfD out, it's the opposite of what we wanted." The right-wing party has doubled - "and the AfD can go into the victim role, because they all exclude them." This is obviously not a successful strategy. The CDU had lost 11.7 percentage points in the state election on 27 October, while the AfD gained 12.8 percentage points.
Letter on Twitter on the way
In the appeal, which is already circulating on Twitter and its authenticity is confirmed by Kellner, it is said that, although no coalition would be considered, but "everything in between under Democrats" could be discussed, "to explore whether and how a stable Government can be formed ". It could not be "that almost a quarter of the votes in these talks should be left out". The word "AfD" does not appear in the text.
An indirect criticism of the CDU's top candidate Mike Mohring can be found in the letter, which categorically refused to cooperate with the AfD in the election campaign. "The exclusionary epidemic that has been manifested by all sides in the election campaign has created a very difficult constellation of government formation, a fact that can not be resolved by referring to party congresses and cheap advice from the neighborhood." In the CDU there is a party congress, which excludes any cooperation with the AfD. In the CDU parliamentary group at a first meeting after SPIEGEL information last Wednesday, a unanimous decision was taken not to coalition with the left - the AfD did not make such a decision since the state election. For this, the state board has already decided not to form a coalition with the AfD.
The provisional election results in Thuringia have no majority for any coalition until now, because the CDU and the FDP rule out a coalition with the AfD and the Left, which collectively received more than 50 percent of the vote. Possible government options are a red-red-green minority government or a minority government of the CDU, SPD, FDP and Greens.
Another option would be for the CDU to nominate its own candidate for the election of the prime minister. With votes from CDU, FDP and AfD they would have a majority over Red-Red-Green and its likely candidate Bodo Ramelow, the previous Prime Minister. The Federal Government Commissioner for the East, Christian Hirte, demanded on the evening of the election in an interview with SPIEGEL that the CDU set up its own candidate.
