Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Coalition Chatter

Roughly three months ago in the German state of Thuringia (eastern side of the country)....a state election was held.  The Linke Party 'won' (gathering the most votes of any party). After that, there's supposed to be a period of two months where they work out the coalition government with a partner party or two.  At the present point, nothing has worked out, and it's a bit obvious.

So to tell this story, you have to look at the election and the aftermath.

While the Linke Party did take 31-percent (29 seats).....the normal partner parties did lousy (the Greens took only 5-percent and 5 seats, and the SPD Party took 8-percent and 8 seats).  If you add up the numbers to make a coalition government....a three-way team here doesn't meet the 50-percent level required.

The second-place winner? The AfD Party (yes, the anti-immigration party).  Their 23-percent resulted in 22 seats.  In most circles, you can't touch the subject of inviting the AfD folks to be a partner.

The third-place and only potential partner?  The CDU folks (Merkel's team).  21 percent and 21 seats.  And lies the essential problem.  The national CDU folks absolutely don't want a case to come up where it shows that the CDU can work with the Linke Party.  Locally thought....the CDU folks in this state think there is a marginal path existing where they might agree to a simple coalition plan. 

If this discussion does work....it'll be the only case in existence where the far-left party (Linke) was able to work with a right-of-center group. 

Hurting the CDU in 2021's national election?  It'll be discussed but I doubt if it matters that much.

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