Erfurt (dpa/th) – An early election of the state parliament remains an option for Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow. “I have always said that I and my party do not shy away from early elections. That still applies,” said the left-wing politician to the “Freien Wort” (Monday). The only reason you didn’t submit the application for a new election last year was because you were dependent on the AfD at the time. “We definitely didn’t want that. But I’m not afraid of new elections,” said Ramelow.
The 66-year-old leads a minority government made up of leftists, SPD and Greens in Bavaria. For majorities, the coalition relies on four votes from the opposition – which often makes it difficult in practice to draft changes to the law or even to draw up a budget. Negotiations on the budget for the coming year are currently at a standstill. In Thuringia there was an attempt to hold a new parliamentary election in 2021, but it failed.
Despite the politically complicated situation, Ramelow defended himself against the accusation of a standstill in Thuringia. “Well, I’ve been hearing that for three years: that nothing is moving forward in this country, that there is a standstill. In fact, we’ve done a lot since 2019,” he told “Freien Wort”. As examples, he cited the special fund created during the corona pandemic, acting in the energy crisis and passing several laws. “In any case, there can be no talk of a standstill so far.”
In Thuringia, the next state election is scheduled for 2024 – probably in autumn. Ramelow has already announced that he wants to run again. For the remainder of the time up to the election, the head of government named two projects that are close to his heart: another non-contributory kindergarten year and the creation of a state migration authority. Migration is a “survival issue” for Thuringia. “Every company I come to tells me that they are looking for skilled workers and cannot find them,” Ramelow told the newspaper. It is therefore “very dangerous when district administrators tell me that they can no longer take in people from Ukraine, but at the same time I hear how many apartments in rural areas are empty and how many district-owned buildings in these districts are empty”.
