CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak rejected Bodo Ramelow’s election with CDU votes. Nevertheless, the left is not comparable to the AfD.
© Photo: Monika Skolimowska / dpa
The leadership of the federal CDU criticizes the planned election of the left-wing politician Bodo Ramelow to the Thuringian
Prime Minister using the CDU, General Secretary Paul Ziemiak said that choosing Ramelow would violate the party’s decisions. It is about the credibility of Germany’s CDU as a whole: its basic conviction and basic values, not political games.
Friedrich Merz, ex-faction leader of the Union in the Bundestag and candidate for a position in the new “leadership team” of the CDU, which has yet to be formed, also clearly opposed an election of Ramelow by Thuringian CDU MPs. The decision of the CDU Thuringia damage the credibility of the CDU across Germany, Merz wrote on Twitter. From the very beginning, the national association should not have accepted the AfD’s “contemptuous game with democracy”.
Berlin’s CDU leader Kai Wegner said that electing a leftist as prime minister would be “historic stupidity” for the CDU. Matthias Hauer, member of the Bundestag in Essen, went even further, demanding on Twitter: “Anyone who misuses a CDU mandate to do this
to elect a left – against clear party congress resolutions – to the MP,
should be excluded from the party. “The CDU did not equate left-wing and right-wing radicals, but did not help both to power.
Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble also categorically rejects cooperation with the Left Party. Schauble said that Handelsblatt:
“The Left Party is still legally the old one
SED. We had and have colleagues in the Bundestag, the victims of the Stasi
have been.” The left wants to leave NATO, has an unclear stance on the EU
and be very considerate of Russia in foreign policy. “There
there is no cooperation with the CDU. ”
Spahn fears a loss of trust
The candidate for the CDU chair, Jens Spahn, had previously voiced criticism. The Federal Minister of Health
tweeted: “An election of Bodo Ramelow by the CDU rejected
I from. As a Union, we are in a crisis of confidence. The last
Expressions from Thuringia cost further trust. It’s about that now
Substance of our party – not only in Thuringia. ”
Further
wrote the member of the CDU presidium: “The situation is so difficult
for our local colleagues in Thuringia: After searching for a
non-partisan personality has failed, no further help
Tactics. I only see a way forward in brisk new elections. There
we have to fight with all our strength. ”
Michael Kellner, federal political director of Bündnis 90 / Die
Greens answered Jens Spahn on Twitter with the words: “It works
it is no longer just about trust in the CDU. It’s about the
Trust in our democracy, that’s why we have to compromise
support and not to fall. ”
FDP leader Christian Lindner believes that cooperation with the Left Party is possible in individual cases, but strictly rejects this with the AfD. Lindner said n-tv.de., the former prime minister Bodo Ramelow still does not consider the GDR an injustice state, but unlike the AfD politician Björn Höcke, Ramelow is not an extremist. “That is why you can work with the left on individual issues in individual cases.”
Left, SPD and
Greens had one with the CDU on Friday evening
Prime Minister election agreed on March 4. The new election of the parliament
should take place the following year on April 25, 2021. Until then, there should be one
binding cooperation between CDU and Red-Red-Green at
various projects – including the budget for the upcoming
Year.
The Thuringian CDU parliamentary group wants to ensure the election of Ramelow, according to its MP Volker Emde. During the talks, Emde was one of four negotiators for the Erfurt CDU parliamentary group.
The cooperation
contradicts the decision of the CDU federal party convention, according to which
Christian Democrats coalitions and similar forms of the
Cooperation both with the Left Party and with the alternative
to reject for Germany. The incompatibility decision was at the end of 2018
been renewed.
The SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken warned the CDU, as agreed, to enable the formation of a government and early elections in Thuringia. Esken tweeted: “In the coalition in the federal government, we agreed that the coalition parties would make their contribution to a democratically supported government and early elections in Thuringia. The democrats in Thuringia have found a way. We expect the CDU to keep its word in the federal government. “
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