The Sept. 1 election of state parliament in Thuringia has produced a constellation in which only a coalition among Christian Democrats (CDU), Social Democrats (SPD) and Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) can provide a parliamentary majority. After initial resistance, the CDU and SPD made a step Oct. 28 in the direction of BSW with its demand for an anti-war clause or preamble in a coalition agreement.
On Oct. 30, BSW chairwoman Sahra Wagenknecht and the BSW national executive issued a statement that criticized the wording of the draft preamble of the CDU, SPD and BSW, which Wagenknecht had demanded as a prerequisite for coalition negotiations. “A major problem is that the preamble in Thuringia falls far short of the compromise reached in Brandenburg [with the SPD, after the Sept. 22 election there—ed.] on the central issue of war and peace and does not take a position on either the issue of arms deliveries or the U.S. missile plans.”
With regard to the coalition negotiations, it says: “We expect our Thuringian negotiators to insist that the foreign policy position of the future state government is specified in these negotiations and that the signature of the BSW is also much more recognizable in the coalition agreement on state policy issues than in the current exploratory paper.” If the CDU and SPD are not prepared “to move on the issues that are important to us, we should refrain from entering into a joint government and push ahead with our election promises from the opposition.”
The results of the exploratory talks in Brandenburg were expressly praised. “A good compromise was reached here with regard to our central peace policy positions. This concerns the commitment to more diplomacy, the realization that more and more weapons will not end this war, and a clear criticism of the stationing of U.S. medium-range missiles in Germany.”
