Ex-BSW boss Wolf is planning a new party in Thuringia after leaving

Thuringia's previous BSW boss Katja Wolf is planning to found a new party after leaving the Wagenknecht party. «We have to set up a company as quickly as possible. According to the deadlines, we should be able to do it in October," Wolf told the German Press Agency when asked in Erfurt. Other former BSW members in Thuringia, including Infrastructure Minister Steffen Schütz, also expect a new party to be founded. Wolf and Schütz left the BSW along with others.

Wolf said that discussions about founding the party were ongoing. There are deadlines for this. An exact date has not yet been set. “A new faction requires a new party.”

On Friday, nine other members of the state parliament who belong to the BSW parliamentary group turned their backs on the party. This means that only two of the current twelve MPs who currently operate as the BSW parliamentary group are also members of the eponymous party.

The future of the BSW group is still unclear

Three others also left both the party and the parliamentary group last week because of the ongoing conflict with the federal executive board and party founder Sahra Wagenknecht. The BSW, which has governed Thuringia since the end of 2024 in the so-called blackberry coalition together with the CDU and SPD, originally had 15 members of the state parliament in Erfurt.

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.

Forming a party is not the topic of a meeting

An internal meeting of representatives of the former Thuringian BSW leadership with party members and sympathizers is planned for late Sunday afternoon in Weimar. When asked, Wolf and Schütz explained that it was not about preparing for the planned founding of a party. Rather, questions should be answered as to why the majority of former BSW MPs left the party on Friday and why a special party conference planned for Sunday was canceled, explained Schütz. “We have to explain all of this.”

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 on the future of the group will be made at the meeting.