In his letter of application Mathias Günther gives an "official and unofficial cooperation" with the Ministry for State Security (MfS): At the Left Party Congress next weekend, he is now running for the post of the state's managing director of the party in Thuringia. The staff provides for irritation: Should the left occupy such an office with an ex-Stasi spy?
Günther open for years with his past and his Stasi activity and have therefore not applied for a decade for a public office, said a spokesman for the Left on request of the news agency dpa. First, the "Bild" newspaper had reported on the personality.
The 57-year-old Günther was by his own account until 1989 officer in the GDR border troops. As part of his job he had kept in touch with the Stasi. Günther has been branch manager of the Thuringian Left since the beginning of this year. Since 2015 he is district chairman of the left in the city of Hildburghausen in the Thuringian district of the same name, as can be seen from his letter of application to the party congress.
Difficult government formation
Thuringia CDU General Secretary Raymond Walk said the "image": "If this is the work-up of the SED past, I wonder how serious that was meant." For him, the personality is a provocation.
A counter-candidate for the office of the country manager does not exist, said the party spokesman. At the state party congress on this Saturday and Sunday in Erfurt, a new executive committee of the left is to be elected.
The congress will also deal with difficult government formation. The Left had won a state election in Thuringia for the first time in Germany. It seeks the continuation of Red-Red-Green as a minority government. Representatives of the Greens and SPD showed, according to the dpa confused about the personnel Günther.
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