Sahra Wagenknecht can also imagine working with the Union after the state elections in 2024. For the CDU/CSU the question of compatibility arises.
Berlin – The starting point for the state elections in East Germany in 2024 is tricky. The AfD has repeatedly made strong gains in the surveys for Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in recent months and has a good chance of becoming the strongest force. This could lead to a stalemate, especially in Thuringia. The problem: a majority capable of governing could not form without the participation of the AfD or the left let form. But the Union rejects coalitions with both parties. Sahra Wagenknecht has now offered its newly founded BSW alliance as a proposed solution.
State elections in East Germany: Wagenknecht open to coalition of BSW and CDU
The former parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Bundestag also holds a coalition with the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW). CDU for conceivable. “We will decide on coalitions after the elections,” she told the Bavaria media group newspapers (Saturday). The BSW is not available to say “business as usual”. “Something has to noticeably improve for the people, only then will we go into government. But of course we would also talk about it with the Union.”
Union in focus: Incompatibility also for Sahra Wagenknecht alliance?
The BSW can expect good opportunities, especially in the eastern German federal states. In a survey by the opinion research institute INSA from January, the BSW got 17 percent and even overtook Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow's left-wing party. The CDU achieved 20 percent in the survey, well behind the AfD with 31 percent.
The only question is whether the Union would be ready for an alliance with Wagenknecht's party. On the left – Wagenknecht’s old home – the CDU has an incompatibility resolution. “The CDU of Germany rejects coalitions and similar forms of cooperation with both the Left Party and the Alternative for Germany,” says a 2020 party position paper.
Stalemate situation in Thuringia? Survey for the 2024 state election
| left | 15 percent |
| AfD | 31 percent |
| CDU | 20 percent |
| SPD | 6 percent |
| Greens | 5 percent |
| FDP | 3 percent |
| BSW | 17 percent |
| Other | 3 percent |
Source: INSA survey commissioned by Bild am Sonntag from January 17, 2024
Union p
arliamentary group vice-president Lindholz rules out cooperation with BSW
This negative attitude caused a stir following the recent state elections in Thuringia. In February 2020 the FDP-Politician Thomas Kemmerich was elected Prime Minister with the votes of the CDU, FDP and AfD. Due to its stance on the left, the CDU abstained from the first two rounds of voting and did not vote for Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow or the AfD candidate Christoph Kinder Vater. The election of Kemmerich by the votes of the AfD triggered the government crisis in Thuringia.
But does this incompatibility also apply to the BSW? At the beginning of this week, the deputy chairwoman of the Union parliamentary group, Andrea Lindholz, ruled out cooperation between the CDU and CSU and the BSW. “I can’t imagine working with Sahra Wagenknecht’s new party any more than I can imagine working with the Left Party,” said the CSU politician.
Thuringia's CDU leader Mario Voigt was much more open about collaboration with the BSW. “I can’t answer that concretely yet. We first have to see what is actually being created, which program and which people BSW is using here in Thuringia. As of now, we basically know nothing,” said the CDU politician in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA. However, he did not want to categorically reject a collaboration. (fd with material from dpa)
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