NAfter a controversial vote in the Thuringian state parliament with the help of AfD votes, SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert warned urgently about the consequences of the vote for parliamentarism in Germany. “Today’s vote in the Erfurt state parliament was no accident. The CDU in Thuringia has fully committed itself to bringing about a political decision that would not have been possible without the votes of the AfD,” Kühnert told the ARD capital studio on Thursday. This is a new quality in German parliamentarism. “If this becomes common practice in the CDU, then parliamentarism will be different after today. Democrats must never make the AfD the parliamentary tipping point.”
The first parliamentary managing director of the SPD parliamentary group also attacked the CDU. “This vote was a very special breach of political taboo,” Katja Mast told “Spiegel”. “This is a bad evening. We are talking about a collaboration with the right-wing extremist Höcke-AfD,” Mast continued.
Weidel: “Merz’s firewall is history”
The leader of the AfD, Alice Weidel, has declared the CDU’s strict demarcation from her party to be over. “Merz’s firewall is history – and Thuringia is just the beginning,” she wrote on Thursday evening on the X platform (formerly Twitter). “It is time to respond to the democratic will of citizens everywhere in Germany. Therefore AfD.”
The opposition Thuringian CDU had previously pushed through a reduction in the property tax due on property purchases in the state parliament against the will of the red-red-green minority coalition because, in addition to the FDP, the AfD also agreed. The AfD is classified as proven right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Thuringia. The governing coalition does not have its own majority
Lindner sees sole responsibility with the CDU
FDP leader Christian Lindner, however, rejects his party’s shared responsibility in Thuringia. “Now we don’t want to confuse cause and effect,” said the Federal Finance Minister at a live interview event with the “Augsburger Allgemeine” on Thursday evening at the newspaper’s publication location. It was a request from the CDU parliamentary group. “That’s why it’s now the responsibility of the CDU.”
“The good cause of reducing the real estate transfer tax so that people can more easily acquire property has not been done any favors,” said Lindner. And with regard to the approval of the AfD, which the country’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as right-wing extremist: “I don’t think that’s a good signal.”
The chairwoman of the FDP Young Liberals, Franziska Brandmann, however, also sees her own party as having a responsibility not to make politics with the help of the AfD. “Right-wing extremist parties must not be normalized. And in order to prevent this, it must always be clear: civil politics must be made without the AfD. Period,” said Brandmann in the ARD capital studio.
Green Party managing director accuses CDU of “collaboration” with AfD
Meanwhile, the Green Party leadership is raising the question of whether one can still rely on the word of CDU leader Friedrich Merz. Federal Managing Director Emily Büning said on Thursday evening: “With this decision, the CDU Thuringia is taking a further step towards normalizing legislative cooperation with the AfD, which the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as a right-wing extremist.”
This is a “drastic shift” that has an impact far beyond the state borders of Thuringia. Merz clearly tolerated this, even though he had repeatedly publicly ruled out any cooperation between the CDU and the AfD. “Now he has to ask himself whether his word still counts,” said Büning.
Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt defends his party’s actions. “I cannot make good, important decisions for the Free State, relief for families and the economy, dependent on the wrong people agreeing,” said Voigt on Thursday after the relevant law was passed. For him it is important that the content is convincing. “I want to say clearly: people are fed up with these party tactics,” he said on ARD in response to the criticism from the Left, the SPD and the Greens. It was about relieving the burden on people.
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