Thuringian Premier Mario Voigt of the CDU announced that he intends to continue governing alongside his Cabinet ministers, including three who will remain in office, despite the resignation of ten members from the BSW parliamentary group. Voigt stated on Friday that the current government is working stably with the participating ministers, adding that he has great respect for the decision made by the BSW members. He characterized the situation as “a day of clarity for Thuringia.”
Voigt confirmed that the CDU had consulted internally and remains committed to the coalition. The ten deputies who resigned from the BSW were described as “naturally our partners” because they had committed themselves to the substantive goals laid out in the government contract.
Katja Wolf, the Thuringian Finance Minister and former BSW member, reinforced this stance, asserting that the faction maintains a clear commitment to the coalition agreement. However, she also detailed the reasons behind the departures. According to Wolf, the members were forced to step away because “red lines were crossed.” She criticized the BSW central board for “flirting with the right” and deciding that the Thuringian BSW members should unseat the Premier without even consulting them. “It wasn’t us who left the party; the party left us,” Wolf asserted. She reiterated that the members supported the election program on which the party was established, a document that also forms the foundation of the coalition agreement.
Meanwhile, Anke Wirsing, one of the two remaining BSW members in the Thuringian state parliament, urged her former colleagues to leave the BSW faction entirely. Telling the “Thüringer Allgemeine Zeitung” that their intention to continue working in the existing faction after their resignation was a “betrayal of the voters,” Wirsing claimed that the BSW name belonged only to herself and Sven Küntzel. Following the announced departures, Wirsing and Küntzel will be the last BSW MPs in the state parliament.
The ten deputies initially announced their resignation from the party on Friday but did not immediately disband the BSW faction. They stated that they would meet as a faction the following week to decide on their next steps.
