Oct 2, 6:01 PM
Voigt’s coalition in Thuringia gets a procedural lifeline from the Left
A minority government that cannot govern on its own has settled on a new routine with its parliamentary opponent — and is carefully insisting that this is not, heaven forbid, a pact.
Thuringia’s minority government has found a practical answer to a political problem that arithmetic keeps imposing. Mario Voigt’s coalition of CDU, Thüringen.Gerecht and the SPD has agreed with the Left on a new procedure for organising majorities in the state parliament, according to a paper seen by the Deutsche Presse-Agentur and first reported by Funke Medien Thüringen. Representatives of all four parliamentary groups have confirmed the understanding.
The point is not to rewrite the coalition map, at least not on paper. The agreement carries no signatures, which fits the current fashion for treating cooperation as something that exists only so long as nobody gives it a proper name. Formally, the participants insist, this is not a classic alliance. Practically, it is the mechanism by which Voigt’s government hopes to get business through the Landtag.
The new arrangement provides for weekly meetings between the parliamentary managers of the four groups. Once a quarter, the factions are also to discuss planned bills and important motions. A traffic-light system will indicate whether an item has already been agreed, is still open, or cannot be settled by consensus. In addition, individual policy fields are to have fixed contacts.
If disagreements remain at the specialist level, the parliamentary managers are to step in first. If that does not settle matters, the faction leaders and the head of the state chancellery can be involved. Janine Merz, the SPD parliamentary manager, told Welt that the issue is about procedures and that this is not always simple when four parliamentary groups are involved. The aim, she said, is to be informed earlier about political initiatives.
The background is straightforward, even if the language around it is not. Voigt leads a coalition that does not have its own majority, so it depends on support from outside the government camp. That dependence has become more pronounced after the split in the BSW faction, which left Thüringen.Gerecht with fewer deputies than the former BSW group. What was already a fragile balance has become an even smaller minority.
There is also a reason the CDU is so careful with its wording. A party conference resolution from 2018 forbids fixed cooperation with the Left and the AfD. So the new procedure is presented as an improvement in parliamentary workflow rather than as a political pact. That distinction may satisfy party lawyers. It does not change the basic fact that Voigt’s government needs help from the opposition to pass laws, and now has a more orderly way of asking for it.
Written by Sandy van Dongen sandy.vandongen@alpineweekly.com
