Heidi Reichinnek, the leader of the Left parliamentary group, strongly criticized Alexander Hoffmann, the head of the CSU regional group, regarding comments he made about a possible red-green-red coalition in Berlin. Hoffmann suggested that such a partnership would constitute a breach of coalition agreements by the SPD at the federal level.
Reichinnek retorted that while Hoffmann accused the Left of being anti-constitutional for addressing issues of distribution and ownership, his immediate colleagues were concurrently cooperating with a regional branch of the AfD, which has been classified as securely right-extremist by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz). She made these comments to Funke-Medien, referencing the election of the state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt on Tuesday.
She further stated that the situation was compounded by the fact that Unions members in Saxony-Anhalt had rejected the SPD candidate for deputy parliament president, even as the Union itself threatened the SPD with a coalition breach if it chose to ally with the Left.
CSU politician Hoffmann had argued that a coalition with the Berlin Left Party would cause the SPD to deviate from the consensus of their existing coalition treaty, announcing “consequences” at the federal level in that event.
Reichinnek called this behavior “bigotry,” claiming it was unprecedented even for the Union. In her view, it is an “open secret” that the extra votes securing the election of AfD man Tobias Rausch as president of the state parliament came from the CDU. Rausch won his election with four more votes than the combined total of his own party and the BSW, which had previously pledged support.
In this context, the co-chair of the Left parliamentary group called the statements made by Union parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei to be “simply embarrassing.” Reichinnek asserted that the only way to halt the growing disintegration within the Union would be to directly confront these issues and implement consequences. Instead, she accused them of trying to mislead the public, or perhaps even being pleased that future cooperation with the far-right AfD was being promoted out of Saxony-Anhalt.
