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Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) at a meeting of the Erfurt Landtag (archive picture)
Photo: Martin Schutt / dpa
Elections will be held on September 26th.
Definitely in the federal government, as well as in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin.
But also in Thuringia?
For this, the state parliament in Erfurt would first have to dissolve.
The argument about it has dragged on for an excruciatingly long time.
Now things are moving.
The dissolution motion "will be submitted tomorrow," announced the leader of the Left in the Erfurt parliament, Steffen Dittes, on Twitter.
Previously, after difficult negotiations, the Left, SPD, Greens and the opposition CDU had agreed to dissolve parliament.
The corresponding application should be signed by at least 30 MPs from the Red-Red-Green and CDU.
A two-thirds majority of 60 votes is required for the premature dissolution of the state parliament.
It remains to be seen whether this quorum will be achieved.
The government groups Left, SPD and Greens together only have 42 votes.
You are absolutely dependent on MPs from the 21-member CDU parliamentary group.
Voting remains tremendous
However, several CDU politicians recently announced that they would vote against the self-dissolution of parliament.
There was hope for the minority government of Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) recently because the FDP MP Ute Bergner had announced her support.
In purely mathematical terms, it would be just enough to dissolve Parliament.
But now the leftist Knut Korschewsky said in the MDR that he will only take part in the vote if the CDU stands by its commitment and brings so many votes that red-red-green and CDU alone could achieve the necessary two-thirds majority.
"I am not giving myself into the hands of the fascist AfD or the FDP," said Korschewsky.
According to a report in the newspaper “Free Word”, his group colleague Kati Engel made a similar statement.
Left faction leader increases pressure on the CDU
Dittes also increased the pressure on the CDU to vote for a corresponding motion to dissolve the state parliament.
If the CDU parliamentary group adheres to the agreement, "there will certainly be new elections."
"Discussions arise because the CDU cannot or does not want to guarantee this in a documented manner." By the vote on July 19, it will be shown "who behaves how, who is important".
The origin of the hiccups about the dissolution of parliament is the election of the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich as Prime Minister with votes from the CDU and AfD in February 2020. This triggered a wave of indignation nationwide and plunged Thuringia into a deep government crisis.
Kemmerich resigned a few days later, and Bodo Ramelow (left) was finally re-elected Prime Minister.
However, the desire for new elections for clearer government relations remained.
fek / AFP
