Erfurt (dpa/th) – According to a new survey, the AfD is again the strongest force in Thuringia, but the gap to the left is shrinking. The AfD, which is classified as right-wing extremist in Thuringia by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, comes to 26 percent in the Insa survey, as the “Thuringian General” reported on Wednesday. Compared to an Insa survey from November, the party around its controversial state party and parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke has increased by one percentage point. At the same time, however, the gap to the left has shrunk, increasing from 23 percent in November to 25 percent in the new survey.
The CDU also gains one percentage point and comes to 22 percent. This means that there are still three major political blocs in Thuringia, with the smaller parties losing some of their approval slightly. The Greens lose one percentage point and come to 6 percent in the new survey, and the SPD also falls from 11 to 10 percent. After the survey, the FDP would have to worry about re-entering the state parliament – it ends up at five percent.
In Thuringia, a new state parliament will be elected in 2024. Many parties in the Free State already have designated top candidates. So it is considered certain that Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow for the left, AfD state party and parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke and CDU state party and parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt will be the top candidates in the race.
The new survey again shows the difficult political situation in Thuringia. A politically conceivable majority is still not in sight. Ramelow is currently leading a minority government of the Left, SPD and Greens, which is organized primarily with votes from the CDU. However, the coalition in the state parliament is repeatedly outvoted – by the AfD, CDU and FDP. Most recently, the three opposition parties in parliament jointly passed a law on arcades, which caused outrage in the ranks of red-red-green.
