Government crackdown in Thuringia: Move on, there's nothing to see here, really

Smiling, Prime Minister Mario Voigt (CDU) signs the paper that is supposed to save his government in Thuringia. “I think this is a good day for Thuringia,” he explains in front of the cameras in the state parliament. A “cleansing thunderstorm” passed through Thuringia. “We got rid of outside influences, namely Sahra Wagenknecht.” Now let's move on.

After Voigt, Deputy Prime Minister Georg Maier (SPD) and Deputy Prime Minister Katja Wolf, who made the paper necessary in the first place, signed this Wednesday afternoon.

Last week, the then BSW state chairwoman resigned from the BSW together with nine other MPs and founded a new party on Sunday: “Thüringen.just”. In previous years there had been an ongoing dispute between BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht and the Thuringian BSW leadership over participation in the government. He should have injected himself further on Sunday at a special party conference. The federal executive board wanted to force the Thuringian association to leave the government coalition. The BSW MPs around Katja Wolf averted this by leaving.

After that, they wanted to continue governing with the CDU and the SPD in the Free State. However, since the coalition agreement had been concluded between the parties CDU, SPD and BSW, a new legal framework was needed. Hence the paper.

Just a few hours earlier, the BSW parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament had officially dissolved. Instead, there is now a Thuringia.just faction in parliament with ten members and five non-attached members. Because not all of the 15 BSW MPs followed Wolf's path last week. Two are still in the BSW, and three have founded another party: Your vote counts (DSZ).

These shifts, without any election, influence the balance of power in the Thuringian state parliament. Until the BSW collapse, the state government had exactly half of the votes in the state parliament, 44 out of 88. A stalemate. For every law she needed a vote from other factions. Since the coalition agreement ruled out cooperation with the AfD, only the left remained.

The state government is now 6 votes short of a majority. It is now a true minority government. The two remaining BSW MPs have made it clear that they want to form a group in the state parliament that belongs to the opposition. The three DSZ MPs do not yet know whether they will join the government or go into opposition.

Stefan Wogawa, one of the three, explained in an interview with the taz that it was certain that they did not want to belong to Katja Wolf's party. He also really wants to agree to AfD proposals that he believes are objectively correct. So far, the BSW has only announced this but never implemented it.

For Voigt's government, this means that it definitely needs votes from the left. Until now there was a “consultation mechanism” for this. But the Left is calling for “fixed appointments” under the new circumstances. Parliamentary group leader Christian Schaft explained to the taz on Wednesday: “We as the Left expect an explanation from the Prime Minister on how he wants to organize majorities with the state government under these circumstances and how trust should be created in political processes.”

Contrary to Voigt's announcements, the current situation is anything but stable. Schaft speaks of “chaos”. He expects the government to hold “talks about binding procedures in parliament” with the left.

When the paper was signed at midday by which Thüringen.recht replaced the BSW in the coalition agreement, Katja Wolf also smiled. In her new party, not only state chairwoman, but now also party chairwoman. With the maneuver they would have stabilized the government in Thuringia. “The events in Saxony-Anhalt show us very clearly what the alternative would have been,” she says.

Mario Voigt also reiterated: “This government is strong in action.” But he didn't explain where he wanted to get the necessary votes in parliament to take action.