Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Thuringia Dust Settling

Back on 27 October 2019.....the German state of Thuringia had a state election. The results were basically this.....the Linke Party (the far left folks) got 31-percent of the votes, and thus won.  But to form a state government, you need partners to reach 50-plus percent. 

So the number three player in this election was the CDU (21.7-percent).  The Linke folks sat down and tried to talk.....but this relationship....even at a state level, simply wasn't going to work.

The number two winner?  The AfD folks (far-right wing), and thus they were on the forbidden list to converse with.

But then you come to the odd situation.....even if you added the SPD and Green Party....that only got you 13.4-percent and was NOT enough to form a government. 

So with three months of talks.....what came up was a partnership to run a coalition government, with a minority situation. 

But the big deal came up today.....you have to have a Premier for the state apparatus.  You need 50-percent of the vote to reach that point.  The Linke Party kept thinking that they'd talk the FDP folks into voting for them.  It didn't happen.

The FDP Party put their guy up (Kemmerich), who had only five-percent of the October vote.  The CDU and AfD parties threw their votes behind him, and suddenly......you had the votes to make Kemmerich Premier of the state.

Shocking?  The news folks are all hyped up because the AfD ended up making a strong statement....by supporting another party. 

There is a good update report over at ARD (public German TV) and I'd recommend it on this topic. 

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