For weeks, things have been simmering around Germany's only blackberry coalition, the Thuringian government coalition made up of the CDU, BSW and SPD. The reason: The BSW federal leadership around Sahra Wagenknecht had repeatedly interfered in state affairs. This is nothing new: two years ago, party founder Wagenknecht and Deputy Prime Minister Katja Wolf had very different opinions on Thuringia's participation in the government and later on how to deal with the AfD.
The escalation came in mid-August: the federal leadership demanded that the regional association break with its own coalition via a resolution. One should withdraw support from Mario Voigt (CDU) as Prime Minister, leave the coalition and, if possible, find a non-partisan head of government. The official reason was the revocation of Voigt's doctorate, which he wants to take legal action against.
Last week, 13 of the 15 BSW parliamentary group members and large parts of the state executive board finally drew the conclusions and quickly resigned from the BSW. Among them are Katja Wolf, who is also Finance Minister, Infrastructure Minister Steffen Schütz and the former BSW parliamentary group leader Sigrid Hupach.
The BSW parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament then dissolved and ten of the former BSW MPs joined forces to form a new parliamentary group - with Hupach as parliamentary group leader. Nine of them and five other ex-BSW members had spontaneously founded a new party three days earlier: “Thuringia Just”. The party leader: Katja Wolf.
Three other former BSW MPs have also founded their own party: “Your vote counts”. They want to form a parliamentary group in the state parliament.
The remaining two MPs from the former BSW parliamentary group, Anke Wirsing and Sven Küntzel, want to remain in the BSW and as non-attached MPs in the state parliament.
This means that the parliament, which was elected in 2024, is being reorganized: while five parties were previously represented here, there will be seven parties and groups in the future. In addition, the government coalition is becoming smaller. The CDU, SPD and the members of “Thuringia Fair” want to continue to form a coalition with each other. All three factions have signed a so-called continuation agreement to the coalition agreement. The three former BSW ministers also remain in the government, i.e. Wolf, Schütz and Environment Minister Tilo Kummer.
However, the coalition only has 39 instead of 44 out of 88 seats. Thuringia now has a minority government again, this time under the leadership of the CDU.
In the last legislative period, the then red-red-green government coalition, headed by Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke) as Prime Minister, only had 42 out of 90 seats and was always dependent on finding majorities with the CDU and FDP. Ramelow's conclusion at the time: "I can't recommend it." And today's CDU parliamentary group leader Andreas Bühl concluded: "A minority government is the worst of all possibilities."
After all, the representatives of the parliamentary group “Your Voice Counts” - Stefan Wogawa, Dirk Hoffmeister and Roberto Kobelt - have stated that they fundamentally want to continue to support the government's work.
None of the government parties want to work with the largest faction in the state parliament, the AfD faction with 32 seats, as the Thuringian AfD regional association with Björn Höcke at the top is considered particularly radical and is classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as definitely right-wing extremist.
The Left, the second important opposition party, has twelve seats. In the past two years, Prime Minister Voigt liked to talk about a "de facto majority", meaning that the Left MPs served as a kind of democratic majority creator in contrast to the AfD. For this purpose, there was officially the “3 plus 1” discussion format with the Left faction.
This worked relatively quietly and pragmatically: the Left repeatedly helped Voigt's government coalition gain majorities in parliament. In return, it was able to push through its own projects or defuse government projects through budget negotiations.
Only the AfD regularly tries to disrupt this flow of work, for example it tried twice to overthrow Mario Voigt via a vote of no confidence and to have Björn Höcke elected as Prime Minister. Unsurprisingly, it failed both times.
Höcke's latest action: The AfD parliamentary group has requested new elections. She can do that because she has the so-called blocking minority, i.e. more than a third of the seats. The vote is scheduled to take place on October 7th. A two-thirds majority is needed to dissolve parliament.
Back to the left: In view of the situation, parliamentary group leader Christian Schaft explained that agreements had to be reorganized. You are not a majority procurer. “We will now have to go into very fundamental discussions,” said Schaft. In any case, the SPD wants to continue with the “3 plus 1 format”.
The remaining BSW MPs Wirsing and Küntzel said they supported the BSW federal leadership, but had stated that their voting behavior remained fact-related. At the moment the two of them have more than enough to do with the reorganization of the BSW in Thuringia.
Because there are likely to be some changes in the state association in the coming months: resignations, new members and a new state board. It is not yet clear when this will be chosen. To do this, a party conference must first be called - there is no date set for this either.
The future direction of the BSW regional association should actually be discussed at a special party conference. This was canceled at short notice when most of the BSW factions left the party. “Nobody could have expected that,” said Küntzel. Neither does this reorganization of political forces in the Thuringian state parliament.
