Left Party on course to head state of Thuringia

Days before Germany remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall a quarter of a century ago, the heirs to the party that built the structure have taken a further step in out of the political cold.

The Left Party, successor to East Germany’s Socialist Unity Party (SED), is on course to head its first regional government in the central German state of Thuringia.

After elections in September, and weeks of emotional coalition talks, the door opened yesterday to a three-way alliance with the Greens and Social Democrats (SPD) when SPD rank-and-file members supported a coalition plan.

Junior partner

It’s not the first time the SPD has shared power with the Left Party at state level. What’s new is the SPD agreeing to be junior partner after a disastrous election in Thuringia saw the party pull in less than half the Left Party vote.

Ahead of Sunday’s Berlin Wall anniversary, the prospect of the Left Party appointing its first state governor has sent shockwaves through the German political establishment. Thuringia’s Greens only agreed to the alliance if the Left Party conceded in writing that the East German state dominated by its predecessors was a dictatorship, not based on the rule of law.

After complaining in public, Left Party leader Bodo Ramelow, a trade unionist who grew up in West Germany, agreed to the demand – though with qualifications. Then German president Joachim Gauck, a former East German pastor and civil rights campaigner, rowed in to the debate.

Trust

The president, supposedly a non-political figurehead of German life, said he had his difficulties with the idea of an SED successor party leading a state government.

“Is the party really so far away from the SED, and their ideas of repressing people, that we can trust them fully,” asked Mr Gauck (74) on German television. Answering his own question, he added: “People who experienced East Germany and are my age will have to make a great effort to accept this.”

His remarks caused uproar, with Left Party leader in Berlin Katja Kipping saying the remarks were "unbecoming" of a president.

Thuringia's new government could be a headache, too, for Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU). It topped the poll in Thuringia but is heading for opposition, robbing Dr Merkel of another state's law-making votes in the Bundesrat upper house.

If the Thuringia coalition works, it could bring the SPD in Berlin a step closer to accepting the Left Party as a coalition partner at federal level.