As of: March 15, 2024, 4:31 p.m
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Katja Wolf (l) and Steffen Schütz, the new state chairwoman of their party, stand together after their election.
© Michael Reichel/dpa
A BSW regional association has been founded in Thuringia.
It is the second in Germany after Saxony.
The party's new dual leadership ruled out collaboration with the AfD.
Eisenach - The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has founded a Thuringian regional association.
Local politician Katja Wolf and entrepreneur Steffen Schütz were elected as the two chairmen, as a spokesman announced on Friday after the founding meeting in Eisenach.
There are currently 43 members in Thuringia, 37 took part.
Wolf received 36 yes and one no votes, Schütz achieved the same result.
Former Bundestag member Sigrid Hupach and Matthias Herzog, managing director of an Erfurt basketball team, were elected as their deputies.
A BSW regional association was founded in Saxony three weeks ago.
Alternative to the AfD
After the meeting, Wolf spoke of a “historic moment” and said she felt a “special spirit of optimism.”
She said they wanted to show “that things can be done better, that things can be done differently, that there are political options and that there is an alternative to the alternative.”
Schütz said: "We all had the feeling that we could not leave our country, and I don't just mean Thuringia, to extremists and so-called alternatives who want anything other than to strengthen our democracy." At the same time, however, the way the democratic parties dealt with " “We have failed miserably with those who want to destroy democracy.”
Wolf emphasized that there was absolute and irrefutable agreement “that there will be no cooperation with the AfD and that there will be a clear demarcation from the AfD”.
But that doesn't mean that people who might have already voted for the AfD would be labeled.
A BSW regional association was founded in Saxony three weeks ago.
Wolf is considered the most prominent switch to the new party in Thuringia to date.
The 48-year-old is the mayor of Eisenach and was a member of the Left for more than 30 years before joining the BSW.
After the founding meeting, when asked by a Danish journalist what role Sahra Wagenknecht had played in her move, she said: “I honestly admit that it was not the person Sahra Wagenknecht who persuaded me to take part in this project.”
Lesson cancellations in view
BSW wants to run in Thuringia in the local elections coming up in May, in the European elections and in the state elections.
New state parliaments will be elected in Thuringia and Saxony on September 1st, and in Brandenburg three weeks later.
Wolf had announced that she would like to run for the Thuringian state parliament.
BSW also considered government participation in Thuringia to be possible.
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A first party conference is to take place in May, where an election program will also be decided.
Schütz said that education policy was the number one topic in the BSW campaign.
They want to work massively to significantly reduce the number of lessons canceled in schools.
“It is a scandal how the situation is in Thuringia.” They also want to campaign for the introduction of German as a foreign language for all children who do not speak German.
“Every child who comes to school should be able to speak German and understand German,” he said.
At the founding meeting, which essentially took place behind closed doors to the press, a total of nine members were elected to the board.
The former left-wing state parliament member Tilo Kummer is the state manager, the lawyer Alexander Kästner is the treasurer.
The former Green Party member of the state parliament Roberto Kobelt and the ex-Green Party state party leader Frank Augsten are also involved in BSW Thuringia.
dpa