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🇩🇪 Germany /Elections & Politics

BSW Leadership Quits, Throwing Thuringia’s Coalition Into Crisis

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News From a news agency Ongoing story
  • Most of Thuringia’s BSW parliamentary group, including state leader Katja Wolf and three ministers, has left the party after years of conflict within the BSW.
  • The departures may reduce Minister President Mario Voigt’s reliable support from 44 seats to 39 in the 88-seat state parliament.
  • The Left Party is expected to gain influence as the coalition seeks a way to continue governing.

Thuringia’s unusual coalition has entered a new crisis after the BSW’s state leadership and most of its lawmakers broke away from the party. Katja Wolf, the state party leader, finance minister and deputy minister president, led a group of nine lawmakers out of the BSW. Three BSW ministers are among those leaving.

The rupture follows years of conflict between BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht and Wolf. The coalition, made up of the CDU, BSW and SPD, previously held 44 of the 88 seats in the state parliament. That created a deadlock, but also meant the opposition could not defeat the government in a vote.

The balance has now shifted. One BSW lawmaker left the party earlier in the week, followed by three others who left both the party and parliamentary group. With Wolf’s group now gone, only 12 lawmakers initially remain in the BSW parliamentary group. Ten have declared that they are no longer party members, while two are critical of Mario Voigt. The minister president may therefore be able to count on only 39 votes, although not all lawmakers have made their positions clear.

Today is a day of clarity.

· Mario VoigtThe Thuringian minister president said this after the BSW leadership and lawmakers left the party.

Voigt says he wants to continue governing. “Today is a day of clarity,” he said. The three lawmakers who plan to form a new group have indicated that they see the greatest overlap with the coalition, but they have not guaranteed their support.

The Left Party’s influence is likely to grow. Its lawmakers were already important to the coalition’s parliamentary calculations, and that dependence will now increase. Left parliamentary group leader Christian Schaft called for new talks and said, “From our perspective, the governing coalition has collapsed today.” Wolf said the acting state BSW executive would resign, while deputy state leader Gernot Süßmuth has already announced his resignation. A special party congress planned for Sunday has been canceled, and the future of the parliamentary group will be discussed next week.

From our perspective, the governing coalition has collapsed today.

· Christian SchaftThe Left Party’s parliamentary group leader described the impact of the BSW split.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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