Because of strong AfD
Union supporters flirt with the left in the east
07/14/2023, 4:18 p.m
The CDU has not actually formed a coalition with the Left Party or the AfD since a party decision five years ago. But a new survey shows a possible change of heart among Union supporters: Many in the East now want to start a conversation with the left.
According to a survey, half of the Union supporters are open to talks between the party and the left about possible government coalitions in the eastern countries. According to the ZDF “Politbarometer” published on Friday, 60 percent of all respondents and 50 percent of Union supporters would like this. A total of 34 percent and 47 percent in the camp of Union supporters reject such talks.
The CDU ruled out such cooperation in a party conference resolution in 2018: “Germany’s CDU rejects coalitions and similar forms of cooperation with both the Left Party and the Alternative for Germany.”
In Thuringia in particular, the political situation is considered complicated because of the strength of the AfD and the left. The 2019 state elections already brought a result that made it impossible to form politically conceivable coalitions with their own majority. The left Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow is therefore leading a red-red-green minority government, which is usually dependent on votes from the opposition – mostly from the CDU. Even in the most recent polls, it would not be possible to form a government without the Left Party or the AfD.
In Thuringia’s CDU, a number of voices had recently been raised to reconsider the so-called firewall to the left or to leave a decision to the state associations themselves. The former Thuringian CDU state chairman Mike Mohring complained that the incompatibility decision had meanwhile met a different reality. He advocated that the CDU state associations should decide for themselves how to deal with the left by means of a state party conference resolution. In Thuringia, a new state parliament is scheduled to be elected in autumn 2024.