The declarations of resignation from the party by the majority of BSW MPs are also putting the state parliament to the test. Nevertheless, on the sidelines of the open day in parliament on Saturday, State Parliament President Thadäus König expressed confidence that, despite the developments, the planned state parliament session will take place next week.
There may not be individual agenda items as planned, he admitted. The state parliament committees would also have to postpone decisions. Because the committees must reflect the majority in the state parliament, said König.
But these are not completely clarified at the moment: The BSW parliamentary group currently has twelve members after three MPs left the parliamentary group. In addition, ten of the remaining members have announced their resignation from the BSW, including the previous parliamentary group leader Sigrid Hupach and the previous state leader and finance minister Katja Wolf. After an ongoing dispute with the federal leadership of the BSW, they turned their backs on the party.
What will happen to the group?
On Saturday, the AfD parliamentary group called for the group status of the BSW to be revoked. A corresponding request was sent to König. In addition, the BSW group should be deprived of the funding that parliamentary groups are entitled to in order to fulfill their constitutional tasks.
State Parliament President König said that the state parliament administration was already examining the extent to which the parliamentary group funds could be paid out. At the same time, he emphasized: “The faction has not been liquidated.” If the claim to the funds expires, payments would stop. But it now remains to be seen what will happen to the group.
According to a spokeswoman, the twelve remaining members of the parliamentary group have been invited to a parliamentary group meeting in the state parliament this Monday. It remains to be seen whether decisions were made about the future of the group.
According to the plans that have become known so far, there could be three splits from the previous BSW parliamentary group in the future: a parliamentary group with a name that has not yet been determined with ten members, three ex-BSW members as a parliamentary group and the remaining two BSW members as non-attached MPs.
Wolf: New faction needs new party
Wolf has now announced the founding of a new party: “We have to found one as quickly as possible. According to the deadlines, we should be able to do it in October," she told the German Press Agency when asked in Erfurt. “A new faction requires a new party.”
Meanwhile, the two BSW faction members Anke Wirsing and Sven Küntzel, who stick to their party membership, are firing violently at the other faction members. They called on them to give back their mandates. “Anyone who sits in the state parliament on the BSW ticket must do BSW politics or vacate the seat,” Wirsing and Küntzel are quoted as saying in a press release from Saturday titled “Theft of the mandate is voter fraud.” Sahra Wagenknecht and Sahra Wagenknecht are the only representatives of party founder Sahra Wagenknecht's camp.
During a panel discussion at the open day in the state parliament on Saturday, AfD parliamentary group deputy Daniel Haseloff also criticized the fact that Wolf, Hupach and Co. turned their backs on the BSW but stuck to their mandates. This approach may have “legitimacy in terms of democratic theory”. “But I very much doubt whether this will ensure understanding among voters in practice,” says Haseloff.
Discussion about returning the mandate
The previous BSW Infrastructure Minister Steffen Schütz, who also announced his resignation from the party, generally stated on the issue of mandates in an interview with the media portal “Fokus Thüringen” that he understood the demand for the mandates to be returned, but that the situation was more complex. “Take, for example, the election program with which the Thuringian BSW ran for the 2024 state elections. We wrote that, not Ms. Wagenknecht.”
In this case, there is no legal obligation to return the mandate. Article 53 of the Thuringian constitution states: “The representatives are the representatives of all citizens of the country. They are not bound by orders and instructions and are only responsible to their conscience. »
Since the end of 2024, the BSW has ruled in the so-called blackberry coalition together with the CDU and SPD. The previous BSW ministers announced that they would continue to support the government of Prime Minister Mario Voigt (CDU).
