Wednesday October 13, 2021
After 15 years with the CDU
Schwesig wants to rule with the left
The SPD has been ruling Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with the CDU for 15 years. Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig is now announcing a change of direction – she wants to lead coalition negotiations with the Left Party. In an initial reaction, the CDU is combative.
The SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania changes its government partner after 15 years. Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig, who with her SPD had clearly won the state elections at the end of September, announces coalition negotiations with the Die Linke party. The CDU, which has been co-ruling up to now, thus remains the opposition role.
From 1998 to 2006 the SPD had already ruled in the northeast together with the PDS / Die Linke as a junior partner. The alliance forged at the time by Harald Ringstorff against the will of the Federal SPD caused discussions as the first red-red state government in Germany. In the new parliament, which has 79 members, Red-Red has a stable majority with 43 seats, and the SPD alone has 34 members.
Desolate situation at the CDU
Schwesig first informed the state executive, party council and the strengthened parliamentary group about the progress of the explorations before she appeared before the press. After the election, the negotiating group she led held talks with the CDU and the Left, as well as the Greens and the FDP as possible government partners. With the intended change of government partner, Schwesig is possibly also reacting to the desolate situation at the CDU, which suffered heavy electoral defeats in the state and federal government and is looking for new executives. Schwesig had always emphasized that he wanted to form a stable government with reliable partners. That seems more likely to her with the left than with a CDU, in which rather inexperienced forces moved to the top of the parliamentary group and in which the party chairmanship is only provisionally occupied.
In the left, despite an equally sobering election result at the state level, there had been no chair shift. Although the party achieved a single-digit result for the first time with 9.9 percent, the influential top candidate Simone Oldenburg was unanimously re-elected as parliamentary leader. The sharp-tongued former headmistress is considered the first candidate for a ministerial office. With 9 MPs left, the Left is likely to claim only two departments. With the same number of the eight ministries so far, this would mean one more for the SPD.
The left are happy about the opportunity to return to the Schwerin state government after 15 years of opposition. “We are pleased with the decision,” said the spokeswoman for the Left Party’s exploratory group, Simone Oldenburg. “The SPD has thus decided in favor of a new departure and a social impetus in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,” said Oldenburg. “Now there is the chance to get our country out of the wage cellar, to strengthen the economy and to put children, young people and families at the center of our work.” Oldenburg announced plans for more teachers, fewer lessons lost and higher quality in daycare centers, as well as an industrial strategy that takes climate and environmental protection into account.
CDU announces tough opposition course
The CDU reacted to the decision with little surprise. “Even before the election it was clear that the SPD had little interest in continuing the coalition,” declared the incumbent state chairman, Eckardt Rehberg. “In terms of content, there were no irreconcilable contradictions between the SPD and the CDU in my opinion, not even in the case of a collective bargaining law related to state contracts.” The left was apparently much cheaper politically and personally than the CDU, Rehberg speculated.
The chairman of the CDU parliamentary group, Franz-Robert Liskow, announced a tough opposition course. “The aim of our opposition work will not be to open rifts, but we will not spare anyone either,” he said. “Our aim is to actively control government work, to offer alternatives in terms of content, but also to deal with contradictions.” The parliamentary group is well prepared in terms of personnel and content for the next five years.