Thursday January 14, 2021
Too many new corona infections
Thuringia postpones the state elections
In Thuringia, a new state parliament should be elected at the end of April. But now the corona pandemic is raging in the Free State like hardly any other place in Germany. That is why the leaders of R2G and the CDU agree on a balloting together with the federal election in September.
The new election of the Thuringian state parliament planned for April 25th will be postponed due to the corona pandemic. The leaders of the Left, SPD, Greens and CDU have agreed on this. They also agreed on September 26th as the new election date. A new Bundestag is also elected on this day. Thuringia's left parliamentary group and state party leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow said that this was the earliest possible time in view of the pandemic situation. In a comparison of the federal states, Thuringia currently has the most new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days.
Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow has been in charge of a red-red-green government since the end of 2014. In the 2019 election, the alliance could no longer obtain a majority. In the vote for the Prime Minister in February 2020, FDP man Thomas L. Kemmerich unexpectedly prevailed with the help of the FDP, CDU and AfD.
After massive nationwide protests, he resigned and Ramelow was re-elected as head of government a good month later. Since then, his alliance of Left, SPD and Greens has been supported by the CDU on a project basis. All four had agreed on the creation of a budget and the subsequent dissolution of the state parliament as well as new elections. By the end of January, the R2G and CDU want to negotiate how they want to continue their previous stability pact.
After the decision in Erfurt, the focus is now on Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. A new state parliament is to be elected there on March 14th. So far, both countries are sticking to the date.
With the postponement of the Thuringia election, September 26th will also be Super Election Day. Then, in addition to the state parliament in Thuringia and the Bundestag, the state parliaments in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin will be newly elected.
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