DistantNews
Support us
🇩🇪 Germany /Elections & Politics

Thuringia: Former BSW leader Katja Wolf seeks to quickly establish a new party

From Der Spiegel · () German

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

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Former Thuringian BSW leader Katja Wolf says a new party should be established as soon as possible, potentially by October, although no date has been set.
  • Thirteen lawmakers have left the BSW, leaving its future parliamentary structure uncertain and potentially creating three separate groupings in the state parliament.
  • Wolf and former BSW members plan to explain the mass departures and the cancellation of a special party conference at a meeting in Weimar.

Katja Wolf wants to move quickly. After leaving the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, the former head of the BSW in Thuringia says talks on founding a new party are already under way and that the necessary deadlines could allow it to happen in October.

“We need to establish it as soon as possible. In line with the deadlines, we should still be able to do it in October,” Wolf told the dpa news agency. She said no precise date had been fixed, but stressed the political necessity of the move: “A new parliamentary group requires a new party.”

We need to establish it as soon as possible. In line with the deadlines, we should still be able to do it in October.

· Katja WolfWolf described the timetable for founding a new party after leaving the BSW.

Other former BSW members in Thuringia also expect a new party to be formed, including Infrastructure Minister Steffen Schütz. Wolf and Schütz left the BSW along with other lawmakers. Both said a meeting planned for late Sunday afternoon in Weimar would not prepare the party’s founding. Instead, former members of the Thuringian BSW leadership will answer questions from party members and supporters about why most of the former BSW lawmakers left on Friday and why a special party conference scheduled for Sunday was cancelled.

A new parliamentary group requires a new party.

· Katja WolfShe explained why she believes the party must be established quickly.

The BSW had originally held 15 seats in the Erfurt state parliament and has governed Thuringia since the end of 2024 in a coalition with the CDU and SPD. The party collapsed within days last week. Only two of the 12 lawmakers who still identify as the BSW parliamentary group remain members of the party, while three lawmakers left both the party and the group.

Plans that have emerged so far could produce three offshoots from the former BSW parliamentary group: a 10-member group under a name yet to be decided, three former BSW members as a parliamentary group, and the two remaining BSW members as unaffiliated lawmakers. Schütz said the departures and the cancelled conference “must all be explained.”

We must explain all of this.

· Steffen SchützSchütz referred to the lawmakers’ departures and the cancelled special party conference.
About this summary

Originally published by Der Spiegel 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.

More Stories

From Our Blog