Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt is preparing citizens for lengthy negotiations on forming a government. “You don’t decide something like that overnight,” he said when he arrived for meetings of the CDU’s top committees in Berlin. “But one thing is also clear: the CDU has gained ground, now has the mandate to lead the talks and that’s what we will do now.” With regard to calls by BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht for clear signals from the state in foreign policy, for example on support for Ukraine or against the stationing of US missiles in West Germany, Voigt stressed: “World politics is not decided in Thuringia.”
There is a stalemate in the seats in the state parliament in Erfurt: 44 seats for a possible three-party coalition of the CDU, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) and the SPD, and 44 seats for the possible opposition of the AfD and the Left on the other side. A possible alliance with the BSW and SPD led by Voigt would therefore also be dependent on the Left.
Wüst: The traffic light has reached its final hour
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) believes that the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP have been badly damaged following the elections in Saxony and Thuringia. “The last hour has struck for the traffic light coalition. If you really want to continue now, that will be a heavy burden for the next few months,” said Wüst before the meetings of the CDU’s top committees. “There has never been such a collapse of a government in the history of the Federal Republic.” He added: “Nevertheless, as a democrat, you have to ask yourself questions across party lines and that should give you something to think about and that is why we must not just move on to business as usual.”
In Thuringia, the parties of the traffic light government recorded heavy losses. With 6.1 percent (8.2), the SPD achieved its worst result in a state election since the founding of the Federal Republic. The Greens were eliminated from parliament with 3.2 percent (5.2), as was the FDP with 1.1 percent (5.0). In Saxony, the SPD was at 7.3 percent (7.7). The Greens narrowly made it into parliament with 5.1 percent (8.6), while the FDP missed out on a place in parliament – as it did in the last two state elections.
