“It’s not a collaboration”
CDU state leader Voigt defends himself with Scholz’s words
September 15, 2023, 12:59 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
The CDU in Thuringia is pushing through a tax cut with votes from the AfD and is being heavily criticized for it. It was about relieving the burden on people, says state party leader Voigt, justifying the decision to vote together with the right-wing extremist party. He also refers to a statement made by Chancellor Scholz a few weeks ago.
Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt defends his party’s decision to push through a reduction in the real estate transfer tax in the state parliament with the help of votes from the AfD and FDP. “I want to say clearly: people are fed up with these party tactics,” said the parliamentary group leader on ARD in response to the criticism from the Left, the SPD and the Greens. It was about relieving the burden on people. “We have to convince people with content, then we can win them back from the margins,” says Voigt.
A minority government made up of the Left, the Greens and the SPD governs Thuringia. The opposition CDU submitted a proposal to the state parliament on Thursday to reduce the property transfer tax from 6.5 to 5 percent. According to Voigt, the government parties had refused to debate the tax cuts since December 2022. When the application was submitted, the AfD and FDP also voted for it, which is why the state parliament decided on the tax cut.
FDP denies responsibility
Like CDU leader Friedrich Merz before him, Voigt reiterated that the CDU would still stick to its principle of not seeking cooperation with the AfD. Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow from the Left and SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, however, accused the CDU of having broken through the “firewall” of a ban on cooperation with the party, which was classified as right-wing extremist by the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Ramelow spoke of a “pact with the devil.”
On ARD, Voigt referred to a statement by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said in the “Thüringer Allgemeine” in August: “Nobody should make themselves dependent on how the AfD votes.” If the AfD ultimately ensures that an application from another party receives a majority, then that is “not cooperation.”
There are also discussions about the voting behavior of the Liberals in the traffic light party FDP. However, FDP chairman Christian Lindner assigned responsibility to the CDU in the “Augsburger Allgemeine” because it had submitted the proposal to the Thuringian state parliament.