The interior minister of the eastern German state of Thuringia, social democrat (SPD) Georg Maier, is calling for an amendment to the state’s constitution to hinder—or prevent—right-wing anti-globalist party AfD from obtaining a high-ranking position in the state parliament.
Elections are to be held in three eastern states, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia next year, and AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) is on course to win in all three, possibly garnering a third of all votes, according to opinion polls.
The prospect of AfD becoming the largest party in these states, with the power to block key decisions that require two-thirds majorities, has set off alarm bells in Berlin. Mainstream parties have been seeking undemocratic methods to stop the party, which is reaping the rewards of the failed migration and energy policies of the left-liberal government. The political establishment has attempted to limit the party’s opportunities by classifying the AfD as “extremist,” calling their popularity a “democracy problem,” removing their funding, and urging corporations to boycott the party. A member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has even proposed banning the AfD outright.
The Social Democrat (SPD) Thuringian minister of the interior now wants to act before next year’s state election in September. In an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday, December 28th, Maier stated that the Thuringian parliament should amend the constitution so that the largest party doesn’t automatically get the position of Speaker of the Parliament after the elections—a post that AfD would surely obtain. Maier says other parties should be able to nominate a speaker as well.
Additionally, the election of prime minister (Ministerpräsident) in Thuringia has been the subject of controversy in the past. While in most German federal states the election of the head of government is fairly straightforward, in Thuringia there have been uncertainties and problems due to a lack of clarity in the constitution.
According to the state constitution, only a relative majority is required to win the election for PM in the third round of voting. The constitution is silent on whether a candidate who runs alone in the third round can be elected with more no votes than yes votes.
In Maier’s view, the current wording does not exclude a candidate from being elected in the third round with a single vote, even though all other MPs voted against him. “I sometimes feel like we are sleepwalking into quite a disaster and will wake up on September 2nd to an authoritarian system. Thuringia must not become a failed state,” Maier claimed, adding that all “democratic” parties—namely the governing leftist Die Linke, the SPD, the Greens, and the opposition CDU, and the liberal FDP—must ensure that the constitution becomes “weatherproof.”
Mainstream parties on the federal level are unwilling to cooperate with the AfD, which they accuse as being on the extreme right of the political spectrum, while state and local governments—even in Thuringia—have found reason to work with the party. It is unlikely that even with a third of the votes, AfD would be able to form a government. But with such a large share of the seats in parliament, it could block key votes or the nomination of judges or changes to the constitution.
Stefan Möller, co-chair of the AfD’s Thuringia reacted to Georg Maier’s words by tweeting: “If you can’t win the election, you just have to change the rules. Left-wing extremists call this democracy.”
The interior minister did admit that mainstream parties are partly to blame for AfD’s rise, as people are concerned about the many crises Germany is facing, and the SPD had neglected the social problems of the Easterners for many years.
The restrictions of movement and the roll-out of vaccines during COVID, the worsening of the migration crisis, the war in Ukraine, the sanctions against Russia, and the cost-of-living crisis have all contributed to AfD’s rise in the national polls. As we previously reported from Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, people in the Eastern part of Germany are especially fed up with the establishment.
While in the past, AfD votes have largely been seen as protest votes, that may no longer be the case. Maier said,
A large proportion of voters are now convinced of their stance … I am concerned that we were wrong in assuming that their voter potential ends at 20 or 25 percent. It is now clear that this cap no longer exists.