Thuringia state elections: CDU to start coalition talks with the hard-left

Germany's centre-right CDU party has cleared the way for coalition talks with left-wing populist alliance BSW and the centre-left SPD in the state of Thuringia after regional elections narrowed the scope for a centrist formation.

Sunday’s regional elections in the eastern German state of Thuringia saw the far-right AfD triumph while centrist parties were squeezed, alongside a similar result in neighbouring Saxony.

With the strict German 'cordon sanitaire' preventing centrist parties from allying with the far right, forming a regional government will likely fall on the CDU, which came second.

The executive committee of the party’s Thuringian chapter authorised regional leader Mario Voigt and General Secretary Christian Hergott to hold talks with the BSW, a breakaway from the far-left Linke, and the Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD, Hergott said on Monday night, dpa reported.

Hergott stressed that talks were merely preliminary, not formal coalition or exploratory talks.

The unusual combination of parties involved is also a result of the cordon sanitaire, which left centrist parties with few options to form a government. With the liberal FDP thrown out of the regional assembly and the SPD and Greens underperforming, the BSW saw itself catapulted into a kingmaker role.

However, a coalition of CDU, SPD and BSW would still fall one seat short of a majority. But the CDU has few other options, as it continues to reject talks with the AfD and Die Linke.

On Monday, the CDU’s national leader, Friedrich Merz, reaffirmed this, adding that it was up to the party’s regional party chapters in Thuringia to decide how to proceed.

Herrgott, therefore, expects the coalition process to be “long, long and intensive.”

Under Germany’s federal system, regional governments have considerable power over regional decision-making and even have a say in some national decisions.

(Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de)