Talks to resolve the governmental crisis in Thuringia, where the newly-elected regional prime minister resigned after criticism from Chancellor Angela Merkel over support from the Alternative for Germany, has ended in deadlock, the news agency DPA and local outlet “Thüringer Allgemeine” suggests.
They report that the Christian Democratic Union’s Christine Lieberknecht, who served as the state prime minister from 2009 to 2014, has rejected an idea to head a skeleton administration with left-wing ministers during a transition period. Thuringia’s former premier Bodo Ramelow, representing the left-wing Die Linke, proposed this plan as he suggested that the state parliament, elected last year, should be dissolved for fresh elections.
The CDU has rejected the idea and called for a complete government under Lieberknecht and the adoption of the 2021 state budget before holding a snap vote. The CDU politician named these conditions, pointing at the disagreement among Die Linke, the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the CDU over the timing of new elections.
From Thuringia Crisis to CDU Struggle
Although politicians in Thuringia, which held state elections in 2019, finally managed to agree to elect the head of the government following lengthy debates this February, the situation shortly thereafter deteriorated and resulted in a political crisis.
Simultaneously, the scandal in Thuringia has resulted in turmoil within the CDU the chancellor had led up until 2018. Her successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, viewed as a possible future chancellor, announced that she will not run for the top job and leave the party leadership. The crisis has resulted in a popularity tumble for Angela Merkel’s party in the eastern German state, as a poll from last week showed.