Thursday, May 27, 2021
Dissolution of the Thuringian Parliament
FDP MPs jump into the breach for CDU
Thuringia is governed with the help of a so-called stability pact. The red-red-green coalition is dependent on help from the CDU. Both sides have agreed on core projects and are aiming for new elections. However, not all CDU members support this plan. An FDP MP could now resolve the situation.
In the debate about the planned new election in Thuringia, an FDP member of the red-red-green minority government has assured support for the necessary dissolution of the state parliament. In Erfurt, MEP Ute Bergner declared “binding” that she would approve the motion to dissolve parliament. You made this decision “personally and independently of my group”. “I want to clear the way for new elections,” said the MP.
The dissolution of the Thuringian state parliament is a prerequisite for the planned new election at the end of September. This requires a two-thirds majority in parliament. For its dissolution, at least 60 of the total of 90 members would have to vote. The governing parties Left, SPD and Greens as well as the CDU parliamentary group together have 63 votes.
According to reports, however, four CDU MPs had announced that they would not support the premature dissolution. That could make it critical for a majority. Possible voices from the FDP and AfD have not yet been taken into account.
Stability Pact “is intended to ensure political capacity to act
CDU parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt said in Erfurt that the announcement by FDP MP Bergner “paves the way for new elections”. The two-thirds majority required for a dissolution of parliament is thus secured. Voigt emphasized that he wanted to stay in conversation with the CDU MPs, who, according to their own statements, do not want to vote with the clear majority of the parliamentary group. The goal remains to “actually replace red-red-green with a government from the middle of the political spectrum”.
The premature dissolution of the state parliament, including the subsequent new election, is a central component of a plan agreed between the Left, SPD, Greens and CDU in Thuringia after the debacle over the re-election of Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow in February of last year. At that time, the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich was surprisingly elected Prime Minister in the Erfurt state parliament because he also received votes from the CDU and AfD. This thwarted Ramelow’s planned re-election. The process triggered a wave of indignation nationwide, Kemmerich resigned. As a way out of the crisis, the Left, SPD, Greens and CDU then agreed on a new election.
Until then, the red-red-green minority government, which has no majority in the state parliament, and the CDU concluded a “stability pact”. This is intended to ensure political capacity to act by allowing majorities in parliament on a case-by-case basis.
Bergner’s membership in the FDP has been suspended for a long time. However, it still belongs to the parliamentary group, which has only five members and would lose its parliamentary group status without Bergner.
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