{
  "id": 763388,
  "title": "Thuringia: Wagenknecht rejects Höcke's offer",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/13/thuringen-wagenknecht-weist-hocke-angebot-zuruck",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-13T12:12:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/thueringen-wagenknecht-weist-hoecke-angebot-zurueck/100246948.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht rejects the idea of Thuringia's AfD state leader Björn Höcke that she should become prime minister in the Free State. \"The office of Thuringia's prime minister is not a wandering trophy that Mr. Höcke can award as he pleases,\" Wagenknecht said in response to a query from the German Press Agency. \"It is true that Mario Voigt has lost trust as prime minister and BSW Thuringia must withdraw its support from him. But Höcke's offer is neither honest nor serious.\" Höcke knows that \"the majority of those who sit in the Thuringian state parliament on the BSW ticket are in opposition to the federal executive board and would not vote for me,\" Wagenknecht said, who has been at odds with the Thuringian BSW state association for some time. A real solution for Thuringia can only be a prime minister who is rooted in the state. She herself had only spent her childhood there. She accused Höcke of \"politics like the old parties.\" \"Party-political maneuvering and showmanship takes precedence over problem-solving,\" she said in her statement. Höcke had called on Wagenknecht to be elected prime minister in the Erfurt state parliament. \"Become prime minister of the Free State of Thuringia,\" Höcke said in a video on X. Currently, BSW governs in Thuringia with the CDU and SPD in a so-called blackthorn coalition. CDU Prime Minister Mario Voigt is under pressure because the Chemnitz University of Technology has taken away his doctoral title. Höcke and his AfD then announced that they would again submit a constructive vote of no confidence against the head of government. Höcke had himself failed with a candidacy.\n\nAccording to the state constitution, the parliament can only express its distrust of the prime minister by electing a successor with the majority of its members. Such a constructive vote of no confidence had already been initiated by the Thuringian AfD faction in February - at that time Höcke himself was running for the post of prime minister. The maneuver predictably failed. But: AfD and BSW could theoretically form a majority in the Thuringian state parliament - AfD has 32 of the 88 seats, BSW has 15 - a majority is 45 votes. Höcke said in the video he posted that Wagenknecht had stated that the firewall policy had failed. However, he had doubts that Wagenknecht's insight would be followed by actions if she entered the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament. In Thuringia, her party supports Voigt, who clings to his office. \"The majority of people in Thuringia want change - just like the majority of people in Saxony-Anhalt.\" He called on Wagenknecht to prove that BSW is not a cartel party. \"Take on state political responsibility.\"\n\nThe background: Wagenknecht had signaled before the Saxony-Anhalt state election on September 6 that her party could help an AfD prime minister in Magdeburg to power - by abstaining in the decisive third round of voting. She also does not rule out cooperation with the AfD there in the state parliament. She emphasizes that a party with approval ratings of around 40 percent cannot be excluded. \"The firewall has failed,\" she says.\n\nThe situation in Thuringia: Prime Minister Voigt is under political pressure because he is said to have worked unsoundly on his doctoral thesis from 2008. The Chemnitz University of Technology therefore withdrew his doctoral title in January, and his objection to it also failed. Höcke's AfD has been campaigning against the head of government for months, who leads a so-called blackthorn coalition of CDU, BSW, and SPD. There was already a showdown in the state parliament in February: AfD applied for a constructive vote of no confidence, Höcke himself ran, but predictably failed. Now the right-wing extremist AfD in Thuringia is planning a second attempt - with the clever trick of proposing Wagenknecht as prime minister. This is because BSW founder and BSW top personnel in Thuringia are at odds with each other. Wagenknecht considers the BSW's participation in government to be a big mistake, while the Thuringian BSW people see it very differently. Höcke is bringing this conflict back into the spotlight.\n\nWhat does this mean for AfD, BSW, and Saxony-Anhalt? In the midst of the election campaign before the state elections, Höcke's idea initially had a media impact. It is unclear whether this will help BSW, which is currently hovering around the five percent hurdle in polls: sometimes the party gets 4, sometimes 5 percent. The effect on Höcke's AfD colleague Ulrich Siegmund in Magdeburg is also open. He distances himself from BSW in order to credibly represent his goal of an AfD solo government and to attract possible voters from the Wagenknecht party to the AfD.",
  "summary": "Thuringia's AfD leader Björn Höcke calls on Sahra Wagenknecht in a video to become Prime Minister in Thuringia. But she declines and counters.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Handelsblatt",
        "title": "Thüringer Landtag: Ministerpräsidentin Wagenknecht? Was Höckes Offerte bedeutet",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/13/thuringer-landtag-ministerprasidentin-wagenknecht-was-hockes-offerte",
        "published": "2026-08-13T12:03:30.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}