Wind turbine dispute in Thuringia
Merz prefers to do without AfD votes
06/08/2022, 01:55 am
The Thuringian CDU wants to enforce a distance rule for wind turbines, in addition to the FDP, the AfD is also announcing its support. A pact with the Höcke party could also bring the federal CDU into explanations. Party leader Merz is still hoping for an elegant solution, but sees a fundamental problem.
In the dispute over wind turbines in Thuringia, CDU party leader Friedrich Merz hopes for a solution without the AfD. “There are talks and I hope that there is a reasonable solution without the AfD being needed,” said Merz in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz. The dispute is about a 1000- Meter distance rule for wind turbines in residential buildings.Because of the announced support for the CDU plans by the AfD parliamentary group with its boss Björn Höcke, the dispute is being closely observed nationwide.
The background is that the opposition factions CDU and AfD as well as the FDP group can outvote the red-red-green Thuringian minority coalition in the state parliament if they act together. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert had warned the CDU in Thuringia against working with the AfD and also made an appeal to Merz. In Thuringia, the AfD is being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution because of right-wing extremist tendencies.
“It’s about a solution in Thuringia for the distance rules that the population wants there, just like in other federal states,” emphasized Merz. “Now we can’t make every motion that we think right on the matter dependent on whether the AfD agrees to it or not.” He also argued that the CDU application corresponds exactly to the position of the SPD-led state government in Brandenburg.
Most recently, there had been initial talks between the red-red-green minority coalition and the opposition CDU parliamentary group in Thuringia, as both sides announced in Erfurt on Tuesday. CDU faction leader Mario Voigt and Green Environment Minister Anja Siegesmund spoke on the phone. “We seriously exchanged our positions today and agreed to stay in touch in the coming days,” said Voigt. Siegesmund and Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow from the left had offered the CDU, the strongest opposition faction, to negotiate on the basis of the emerging coalition agreement between the CDU and the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia on the subject of renewable energy. The CDU wants to change the Thuringian building code for the distance regulation and has submitted a draft law to the state parliament.