CDU general secretary: CDU will not vote for Ramelow, Lindner: Merkel has not exerted any pressure, the CDU parliamentary group has agreed to vote with AfD – the latest developments after the political quake in Thuringia

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• CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak rejects calls for support from ex-Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) in the event of a possible re-election in the Thuringian state parliament. “There will be no votes from the CDU for Mr. Ramelow or anyone else from the left to become prime minister,” said Ziemiak on Sunday in the ZDF program “Berlin direct”. “Mr. Ramelow has no majority in this parliament.”
• Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has allegedly not pushed Thomas Kemmerich, the FDP politician who was elected Prime Minister of Thuringia on Wednesday, to resign. “It did not exert any pressure,” said FDP leader Christian Lindner on Sunday before an exam of the FDP parliamentary group in Berlin. The events in Thuringia had damaged the political culture in Germany “and seriously injured the soul of the FDP”. The fact that the AfD is now even considering electing the left-wing politician Bodo Ramelow as prime minister shows its goal of “chaotizing democracy and destroying the political landscape”. The FDP was the first party to fall into the trap. Lindner does not consider Ramelow a suitable candidate to calm the country. Instead, he proposed to temporarily choose an independent person as prime minister.

• The Thuringian CDU parliamentary group apparently agreed to elect Kemmerich together with the FDP and AfD as prime minister. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” writes that the group leader Mike Mohring asked all Christian Democratic MPs whether they could handle it if the AfD and Kemmerich were elected with them as prime minister. Everyone would have said yes. The Thuringian CDU general secretary Raymond Walk confirmed this statement to the newspaper. However, one had not expected that there would be a third ballot. Mohring is politically damaged and is to be replaced as the leader of the parliamentary group in May.

• The choice of Kemmerich in Thuringia triggers attacks. FDP politicians Karoline Preisler from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern reported that she and her little daughter had been fired at with fireworks. On Twitter, she wrote: “We ran away and have shelter.” Already in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, branches of the FDP and CDU in Schwerin (also Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) were sprayed with graffiti. “Nazi” and “Nazi supporters” wrote strangers on the walls of the house. The FDP Mecklenburg-Vorpommern had congratulated Kemmerich on Facebook for his choice. “Antifa Nord-Ost” published a picture of an action in front of the FDP office in Lüneburg (Lower Saxony). Hooded people posed there with a banner on which the FDP is disparaged.

• Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, head of the Left in Thuringia, demands support from the CDU for the election of Bodo Ramelow as Prime Minister. The AfD’s votes should not matter. “We will only send Ramelow to the election if we have a democratic majority for him,” she said. The vote on the prime ministerial election takes place secretly, but the CDU can publicly announce that four or five of its deputies would vote for Ramelow – without naming their names, said Henning-Wellsow.

• The AfD may want to elect Bodo Ramelow to delegitimize a possible red-red-green state government in Thuringia. “The headless reaction of the CDU and FDP brings me to the recommendation to the Thuringian friends to vote for Mr. Ramelow next time, in order to prevent him from doing so, because he should not then take up the office either,” said AfD parliamentary group leader Alexander Gauland , The CDU’s action in the Thuringia crisis ranged on a scale from “bleak to devastating”. Obviously, those involved would not have worried about the consequences.

• The leaders of the grand coalition of CDU, CSU and SPD called for a quick election in Thuringia on Saturday. “We rule out government formation and political majorities with AfD votes. That is and remains the decision-making process, »says a statement by the three parties. The grand coalition also demanded that a new prime minister be elected immediately – regardless of possible new elections. It is important to quickly ensure clear conditions. The election of Kemmerich with a majority achieved through AfD votes was “an unforgivable process,” said the coalition.

• Kemmerich resigned as Prime Minister of Thuringia on Saturday afternoon. He had announced his resignation on Thursday, but was officially Prime Minister until Saturday. On Friday, he had said that he would not resign immediately. Kemmerich wants to forego the salary for his short term. He will return the amount to the treasury, he said on Saturday. He had previously said that he would donate the salary.

• Under pressure from Chancellor Merkel, Christian Hirte, East German Federal Government Commissioner and Vice-President of the CDU Thuringia, has given up his position. On Saturday, he wrote on Twitter: “Chancellor Merkel told me in a conversation that I can no longer be the Federal Government’s representative for the New Länder. So, following your suggestion, I asked for my release. »It appears that his comments on the choice of Kemmerich are the reason. Shepherd had congratulated Kemmerich on Twitter.

The Thuringian state parliament surprisingly elected the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich as Prime Minister on Wednesday. It had been expected that incumbent Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow would be re-elected by the Left Party. The election was secret, but it is certain that Kemmerich was elected by the CDU and the AfD in addition to his own party. Just a day later, on Thursday, Kemmerich announced his resignation from the Prime Minister’s office. The FDP parliamentary group now wants to dissolve the state parliament. However, this requires a two-thirds majority, including the votes of the CDU or the AfD. The CDU has so far shown no willingness to do so. The CDU state association in Thuringia initially does not want any new elections. One has to look for a way out of the crisis with the existing majority in the state parliament, said the CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

The fact that the FDP politician was presumably supported by the AfD led to violent protests. Kemmerich was criticized for accepting the election. Party colleagues also asked him to resign. The FDP leader Christian Lindner is said to have threatened his resignation in an interview with Kemmerich. Cooperation with the AfD is taboo for the other parties represented in the state parliament. Forming a government would have been difficult, if not impossible, for Kemmerich. He is stepping down to “remove the taint of AfD support from the Prime Minister’s office,” Kemmerich said Thursday. The AfD “tried with a perfidious trick to damage democracy”.

With the existing majority, it will hardly be possible to solve the crisis. Should there be new elections, the FDP, which only barely entered the state parliament in the last elections in October 2019, could miss the re-entry into parliament. The CDU would also potentially lose massive votes. A survey by the Forsa Institute indicates a possible majority of the Left Party, SPD and Greens. In this case, Bodo Ramelow could resume his government work in the same constellation as before. State association and parliamentary group of the CDU in Thuringia meanwhile announced that initiatives to form a government would not be blocked and abstained from voting if in doubt. Thus, the previous Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow could come back into office under certain circumstances. The CDU leader Kramp-Karrenbauer said that Thuringia needed a candidate “who does not split the country, but unites”. She asked the SPD and the Greens to name a candidate. Until recently, the two parties had formed a coalition with the Left Party in Thuringia. Representatives of the SPD and the Greens rejected the CDU chief’s proposal.

There are two ways to get new elections in Thuringia. On the one hand, the deputies can apply for dissolution. This must be decided by at least one third of the Thuringian deputies. Left, SPD and Greens would have enough votes to do so. If the application is successful, it still has to be voted on whether there should actually be new elections. This requires a majority of two thirds of the deputies. Second, new elections can be brought about through a question of trust. Kemmerich would have to do that himself. He then needed an absolute majority to get Parliament’s trust. If no new prime minister is elected within three weeks of the failure of a trust application, new elections will be held. Another path to a new prime minister would be the vote of no confidence – for that, however, a successor with the majority of the deputies would have to be elected at the same time. According to the Thuringian state constitution, a motion of no confidence can be requested by a parliamentary group or at least a fifth of the deputies.

Above all, the FDP leader Christian Lindner was criticized. He had initially expressed joy at Kemmerich’s victory, only to change his mind a little later and also to demand his withdrawal. Lindner raised the question of trust on Friday in the party executive and was confirmed in office with only one vote against. On the other hand, the CDU boss Kramp-Karrenbauer is likely to emerge from the matter weakened. On Thursday, she drove to Erfurt and received a removal from her party colleagues there when she tried to persuade them to vote in new elections. Kramp-Karrenbauer, who has so far acted as party leader anyway, has to accept a further weakening of her authority. The Chancellor and former CDU chairwoman Merkel said about the election in Thuringia that the result of this “unforgivable” process must be reversed. The CDU must not participate in a government under Kemmerich.

According to a survey by the Forsa Institute, the CDU and FDP should lose massive approval in the event of new elections. The FDP would miss the entry into the state parliament with 4 percent; the CDU would still have 12 percent. Left Party (37 percent), SPD (9 percent) and Greens (7 percent) could rule together again. The AfD would get 24 percent and could only grow slightly. At the federal level, the FDP loses significantly in favor of voters. According to a Forsa survey, it drops to 5 percent there. The AfD would also lose 2 percentage points and reach 9 percent. SDP, Left and Greens would improve slightly and could make up a majority at the federal level. The CDU would remain at 28 percent.