Enlarge image
FDP politician Kemmerich (on February 5, 2020): Constant reminder of the taboo breach in Erfurt
Photo: JENS SCHLUETER / AFP
Thuringia again.
This country, which the Cologne songwriter Rainald Grebe scoffed at, was “one of the difficult federal states.
Because nobody outside of Thuringia knows it.
In the Thuringian Forest, they still eat dogs.
According to an old recipe. "
So this Thuringia, which only really reached the German consciousness in February 2020, when the FDP man Thomas Kemmerich was elected Prime Minister with the votes of the AfD. At Wikipedia, the event is now considered a "government crisis in Thuringia", in fact it was a nationwide political scandal. For the first time, the border towards AfD was crossed - it was the Erfurt dam breach. The process cost the designated successor to Merkel and CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer the job.
Anyone who thinks that history does not repeat itself should look again at the self-proclaimed Free State. Last year, the Thuringian people's representatives failed to elect a prime minister without an accident. Now they may fail to dissolve the state parliament and get the long-promised new elections off the ground. The situation is so tricky that some people now wish again that someone from Berlin, which is otherwise so far away, might intervene.
But one after anonther.
Actually, the Thuringians should be called to the polls again immediately after the Kemmerich election, and Kramp-Karrenbauer wanted it that way too.
But it was above all the local CDU that vehemently rejected this step.
The reasons were obvious and had nothing to do with moral claims: In surveys, the Union had slipped to twelve percent, red-red-green stood in front of a solid majority in the country.
Half of the CDU mandates were at stake.
So the new elections were postponed.
Only on April 25, 2021, then due to Corona on the date of the federal election, September 26.
The Union grudgingly cooperated with the minority government of Bodo Ramelow and promised the necessary votes to dissolve parliament for the new election.
But: nothing will come of it.
60 votes are needed for the state parliament to dissolve itself.
42 delivers red-red-green, 18 should bring the CDU.
But at least four CDU MPs do not want to agree.
The CDU has 21 parliamentarians, so 17 remain - one vote is missing to dissolve it.
So far so bad.
But it's not complicated enough.
The CDU parliamentary group leader and possible top candidate Mario Voigt found a supporter in the FDP parliamentary group who actually wants to get out of the free democrats.
The MP Ute Bergner wanted to vote with the CDU for the dissolution, it said.
The entrepreneur has just founded a new party, the "Citizens for Thuringia".
She is associated with the lateral thinker movement.
Bergner could be the 60th vote.
So everything is going well in Thuringia?
No.
Because red-red-green does not want voices from the lateral thinker milieu.
The partners of the minority government torment the CDU with their promise to set up their own majority.
In addition, they want the CDU's assurance not only for the final vote on the dissolution in parliament, but rather beforehand, namely with the application required for this.
In order to introduce this proposal, it would actually only take 30 votes, so the government factions could do without the CDU.
But that is too dangerous for the left, the SPD and the Greens.
Especially since some are not even sure whether there are really only the four dissenters in the ranks of the CDU or even more.
Couldn't the FDP help?
The Free Democrats announce that they feel comfortable in the role of the opposition.
They have just re-elected their ex-short-term minister-president Kemmerich as state chairman.
It cannot be ruled out that he will again be the top candidate.
If it comes to an election, because so far the FDP has not thought of bailing out Red-Red-Green and the CDU.
Hennig-Wellsow calls for Lindner to intervene
The co-federal chairwoman of the Left, Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, is now pushing for FDP boss Christian Lindner to join the re-election poker. »The FDP now has the chance to show that it has learned something from the Erfurt dam breach. I call on Christian Lindner to remind the Thuringian FDP of its responsibility, ”Hennig-Wellsow told SPIEGEL. "With the votes of the FDP a democratic majority would be secured for the dissolution of the state parliament."
In the direction of the CDU, the left-wing chairwoman is also clear: »The Thuringian CDU has signed a contract that it cannot or does not want to keep.
The regret after the dam broke was apparently only a pretense. «Armin Laschet» apparently doesn't care «, says Hennig-Wellsow.
“The silence of the CDU federal leadership is booming.
Thanks to the breach of contract, the CDU now threatens a scenario in which Björn Höcke can again demonstrate the democratic parties. "
The left-wing politician is alluding to the possibility of a vote of confidence in the state parliament, which would allow the AfD some absurd scenarios to outsmart the other parties.
It is uncertain whether the federal chairmen will be able to change anything in the process.
In view of the upswing in the federal government, the FDP would have a good chance of doing better in Thuringia, in Saxony-Anhalt the Free Democrats even ended up before the Greens.
But the federal FDP in particular is likely to have little interest in a Kemmerich campaigner before the general election.
After all, for voters it is the constant reminder of the Erfurt taboo being broken.
Time is running out.
The motion to dissolve parliament must be submitted between June 18 and July 7.
Only then can the Thuringians elect a new state parliament at the same time as the general election.
On Thursday the next of the countless crisis rounds of the Red-Red-Green and CDU is due in Erfurt.
How did Rainald Grebe sing? “Thuringia, Thuringia. Thuringia. The green heart of Germany. How long have hearts been green? Green with envy due to insignificance? Green with hope that it will stay that way for a long time? "
