The Hollowing-Out of the Political Spectrum in Thuringia

An election was held today for the state parliament in Thuringia, which was once part of the DDR, a.k.a. East Germany. The two videos below concern today’s political events in Thuringia. Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translations, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling.

The first video shows a breakdown of the projected vote in a TV news report. In Thuringia, as in almost the entire West, the political spectrum is being hollowed out: votes for the “center” are disappearing, leaving the stage to the hardcore left and the “far right”.

Angela Merkel’s CDU is what passes for the “center-right” in Germany. It lost massively in the Thuringian election, so much so that if it were to ally with the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany) — which it would never agree to — it could not form a government in the state. The AfD received more votes than the CDU, but no other party (with the possible exception of the FDP (Freie Demokratische Partei, Free Democratic Party, which got 5.5% of the vote) would ever ally with it.

You’ll notice that the Left is still the big winner in Thuringia. The Left (the party, that is, Die Linke, the sanitized successor to the ruling communist party in the DDR) got the largest share of the vote, 30%. Its traditional allies, the SPD and the Greens, got 8% and 5.5% respectively. All this enthusiasm for socialism is coming from East Germany, which is reputed to be allergic to such things after its lengthy bout of Communism. But Thuringian voters gave more than 40% of their votes to the commies and their allies, and less than 25% to the AfD.

The left parties don’t have enough seats to form a coalition government. However, if the CDU were to join them — which is what this video is speculating about — they could do it:

The second video shows an alcohol-fueled diatribe by Mike Mohring, a CDU politician in Thuringia and one of its candidates. Mr. Mohring is as nasty and vitriolic as only a self-righteous leftist can get when fighting “Nazis”. But remember, this guy is actually “center-right”:

Video transcript #1:

00:00   Exactly, and Robin of course now looks with interest at the first projections
00:03   and the numbers coming in now from Thuringia.
00:06   So let’s have a look at these state election projections.
00:10   The CDU is still just over 20% at 22%.
00:14   The Left is at 30%. The SPD is at 8%.
00:19   The AfD is at 23%, and the Green party holds at 5.5%.
00:24   The FDP also stands at 5.5% and the other parties together reach 6%,
00:28   which means none of these parties plays a role
00:32   with the others at the moment. So now onto the gains and losses after the first projections.
00:41   The CDU, one must say simply, is the biggest loser with minus 11.5%.
00:45   The Left gained slightly, actually.
00:48   The SPD loses, and it has to be said, almost a quarter of their votes are lost, is at 8%.
00:53   The AfD of course clearly did well, as you can see; the AfD
00:57   has more than doubled its votes. The Greens and the FDP
01:01   also seem to be part of parliament, according to the first projections.
01:04   So what does this mean for the coalitions we could see in Thuringia?
01:10   So far we’ve only had certain democratic constellations,
01:13   and therefore we first wanted to see if it can stay that way.
01:16   Can the Left, SPD and Greens, i.e. the Red-Red-Green, actually create a coalition? No.
01:23   They have 40 seats; they need 45. So Red-Red-Green will no longer exist in this form.
01:30   Now one could, of course, consider this constellation if one were to include the FDP.
01:34   At the moment it is relatively certain that the FDP will exceed
01:37   the five percent hurdle. Yes, that would be exactly a majority.
01:40   That would be an alliance we haven’t seen so far in the Federal Republic of Germany.
01:44   The Left, SPD, the Green Party and the FDP,
01:48   a very multicolored alliance, and I must admit
01:51   there is still no name for it, because none of us had anticipated that.
01:54   Let’s take out the Left Party and see what happens if we
01:58   bring in the CDU. Then you see, there are only 38 seats.
02:01   So even further away from a majority. That would be the so-called Sinbad Alliance.
02:06   That would be the first time we’ve had something like that because of Thuringia.
02:09   No need to show the Kenya Coalition [black-red-green, like Kenyan flag];
02:12   it doesn’t work. The Green Party and the SPD, and look at the constellation.
02:15   But let’s take out the FDP, with the Left after the first projections.
02:19   Yes. So if the CDU and the Left were actually to
02:22   change their attitudes, they would have a majority.
02:25   Apparently, that is the only mathematical majority we have
02:29   after this first projection with 49 seats.
02:32   So we could now take out the Left, and even though Mike Mohring
02:35   excluded the possibility of working with the AfD,
02:38   that wouldn’t be enough either. So CDU with AfD doesn’t work.
02:41   So these first projections shows us quite clearly: there’s only one possibility
02:45   for the formation of a coalition, and that’s between
02:48   the CDU and the Left Party. That would be a majority.
02:52   But we’ll have to wait until later this evening.
02:55   There will certainly be many interesting opinions regarding this election that we have seen,
03:02   but one thing we can also say at this point is that voter participation was definitely higher.
03:06   That is at least one thing that can be seen positively.
 

Video transcript #2:

00:00   Mike Mohring’s absolute loss of control and antisocial vocabulary! 100% Hate speech!
00:03   They get on my nerves. They want to eliminate my way of life. They want to make car bombs.
00:06   They want to stab people. They’re getting on everyone’s nerves in this country.
00:09   Antonia Sturm, I have a question for Mr. Mohring. At the beginning —
00:12   unfortunately you weren’t there yet — the discussion was
00:15   about the barbarization of values in society and the drift to the right.
00:20   I’ve seen your posters talking about the fight for Thuringia,
00:24   and attacking. These characteristics suggest that we’re in a society
00:30   that’s in full upheaval, that we’re in a revolution,
00:37   and we find ourselves in a struggle. I don’t think when you use
00:41   this kind of language that it helps counteract the barbarization.
00:47   You’re actually using the same methods as the AfD.
01:01   (Attention!) —So, seriously I don’t know, really, really. I’ve used two mottos used by those
01:07   dirty Nazis for the last three weeks. Do you really think
01:10   I represent policy when I use the same words of those who want
01:13   to change our society and who want something different than we do? We want a society
01:17   that is open to the world and want to live together
01:20   as a community and in a tolerant society. Do you seriously mean that I have anything in common
01:23   with them? You can completely forget that. I completely resist it.
01:27   They get on my nerves. They want to eliminate my way of life. They want to make car bombs.
01:32   They want to stab people. They’re getting on everyone’s nerves in this country.
01:35   I don’t want those Nazis in our country and I don’t say the word. You can believe that.
01:40   I don’t think when you use this kind of language that it help counteract the barbarization.
 

4 thoughts on “The Hollowing-Out of the Political Spectrum in Thuringia

  1. Sadly anough, the video with Mohring and his beer bottle seems to be real. That’s all one needs to know about the current state of the CDU. But of course, AfD’s Björn Höcke is oh so dangerous. At least he’s sober, one might add.

  2. I’m glad that text versions are provided because for some reason, I can’t get anything on “DTube”. The site comes up, but the page is blank.
    Thanks anyway.

  3. East Germany, if it wants to avoid massive social conflict in the near future, once again break away from West Germany and align itself with the Visegrad Four. This is where is belongs culturally, and where it can survive.

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