“Not the best starting position”
Ramelow wants to make the left stronger than the AfD
March 17, 2024, 4:56 p.m
The Left wants to nominate the Prime Minister again after the autumn election in Thuringia. The coalition with the SPD and the Greens should also be continued. According to the surveys, this is a more than ambitious project. The party is heading into the election campaign with a social program and a clear course against the right.
In the state elections, the Left in Thuringia is relying on its Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow and a government program that promises more government and justice. At a two-day state party conference in Ilmenau, Ramelow and the party executive reaffirmed the Left’s claim to government after the state elections in September – despite currently weak poll numbers. “We’re not starting in the best starting position. But that doesn’t scare me,” said Ramelow. The Left is confident of winning the state elections on September 1st.
“We are not fighting against other parties, we are fighting against fascism,” emphasized Ramelow. “My goal is to get the AfD below 30 (percent) and us above 30.” It’s about a cosmopolitan and democratic Thuringia. “We stand for social responsibility in this country.” Ramelow was reacting to the high poll numbers of the Thuringian AfD, which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified as right-wing extremist. The Left is currently polling between 15 and 17 percent – only about half as high as in the state elections five years ago. The AfD with its party and parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke achieved values between 31 and 36 percent.
An 85-page government program until 2029 was unanimously approved. Its projects include a third year of free daycare in Thuringia, a nationwide 28-euro ticket for young people and the establishment of a state housing association. In a first step, it should build or renovate 1,500 apartments and offer them with social security. For the left, justice is “when every person is given equal opportunities from childhood to old age and no one is left behind,” the program says.
The party conference spoke out in favor of the state government supporting an initiative by Bremen to examine a legally secure AfD ban procedure. The Left group in the Bundestag should also work for this.
The state chairwoman Ulrike Grosse-Röthig called for continued cooperation with the SPD and the Greens despite the current lack of majorities. The three-party coalition has ruled Thuringia for almost ten years, with a brief interruption; Since 2020 it has no longer had a majority in the state parliament.
As a guest speaker, the Green Party’s top candidate, Madeleine Henfling, made it clear how much the situation as a minority government is taking a toll on the three coalition partners. “The minority coalition has brought us to the brink of our ability to compromise,” she said. “Nevertheless, red-red-green stood together.” Henfling did not rule out a continuation of the coalition with the Left. “I hope that after September 1st we will be a progressive majority coalition again.”