BSW-Krise: Ex-BSWler wollen in Thüringen weiter mitregieren

The majority of the disintegrating Thuringian BSW faction intends to continue supporting the CDU-minister-president Mario Voigt-led government in Thuringia. Sigrid Hupach, the former BSW faction chief, declared in Erfurt that "we stand further with the coalition." The wave of resignations from the BSW continues, with only two remaining lawmakers out of a total of twelve BSW lawmakers.

Hupach stated that the faction will decide on its survival in the coming week. It was announced that the entire acting state management will resign. The planned state party meeting on Sunday, which was to discuss the government participation in Thuringia, will be canceled, said former state chairman Katja Wolf. Wolf, who is also Finance Minister and Deputy Minister-President, cited the clash between the Thuringian BSW and the Bundesspitze, as well as party founder Sahra Wagenknecht, as the reason for the decision.

"We are not elected for endless self-employment, we are not elected for constant defensive fights, and we are not elected for enduring flirtations with right-wing radicals," Wolf said. The Bundesspitze had demanded that the Thuringian BSW abandon the coalition in response to the plagiarism affair involving Voigt. The last few days have made it clear that there would be no common path, Wolf said.

According to Hupach, the faction will continue initially with twelve lawmakers. Originally, there were fifteen politicians in the BSW faction. BSW lawmaker Alexander Kästner said there is a possibility that a decision to dissolve the faction will be made in the coming week. In Thuringia, the BSW is part of the so-called Bramber coalition consisting of CDU, BSW, and SPD.

The alliance had from the beginning no own majority – a deadlock of 44 to 88 votes existed between the opposition of Linke and AfD. At the beginning of the week, it was known that BSW lawmaker Matthias Herzog was leaving the party. Then, three more lawmakers announced their party resignation and also announced that they wanted to form a separate parliamentary group. On Friday, nine more lawmakers followed, who wanted to leave the BSW.