Thuringia's CDU leader Voigt is calling for a quick change of course after election defeats

Erfurt. After the CDU's electoral defeats in Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia's Prime Minister Mario Voigt has called for a quick programmatic relaunch of his party. “We need a trend reversal quickly,” said the CDU politician to the German Press Agency in Erfurt, with a view to the upcoming closed meeting of the CDU Presidium in Berlin

The CDU wants to discuss the consequences of the series of defeats in the three state elections in September on October 11th. “We as countries will logically get involved in the debate, because then the results must be visible,” said Voigt.

The 49-year-old said that there was no longer a need for explanations, but rather results for the people in Germany. “That’s why we as countries are calling for this programmatic change in course and I believe that this must now be in the foreground.” Voigt called for an “expensive stop” in energy prices. “The central issue that concerns many people, that normal life is affordable again for normal people, must be the focus of politics.”

In the election in Saxony-Anhalt, the CDU fell by almost 20 percentage points to 17.2 percent, while the AfD almost achieved an absolute majority. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania the party was thrown out of a state parliament for the first time and in Berlin it was pushed into second place by the Left. Voigt, who is also the CDU state chairman in Thuringia, called the failure to pass the five percent hurdle in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania a “historic electoral defeat”.