Political parties CDU and Left in Thuringia resuming discussions

In a significant development, Thuringia's Minister President, Mario Voigt, held a conversation with leaders of the Thuringian Left, Katja Maurer and Ralf Plötner. The discussion, held in an open and friendly atmosphere, focused on the double budget for 2026/2027 and the central projects of the state government in the second half of the current year.

Voigt, who is also the state chairman of the Thuringian CDU, emphasised the importance of dialogue with a constructive opposition. The Left, for its part, has expressed its willingness to discuss setting up Thuringia for the future.

However, the Union's incompatibility resolution, which prohibits the CDU from cooperating with the AfD and the Left at any level, continues to stand as a barrier in rapprochement on policy issues. Maurer described this resolution as the "elephant in the room."

Despite this, de facto cooperation between the Union and the Left has been taking place on the communal level in Germany for years, and on the state level in Thuringia. In fact, since the end of 2024, the Left has been practically supporting the Blackberry coalition on the state level in Thuringia.

In the previous legislative period, the CDU supported a red-red-green minority government to pass the state budget annually. The Left, too, participated in discussions on the double budget.

The meeting did not result in any concrete outcomes, but Maurer described the atmosphere as relaxed and friendly. She believes that Voigt has finally understood why the Left withdrew from the Three-plus-one format, which had been too non-binding at the level of the faction chairmen.

It's worth noting that there have been repeated statements from the Thuringian CDU that seek to discredit the Left by placing it in the same line as the former East German SED party. However, the Left continues to engage in discussions about the future development of Thuringia.

As for the AfD faction in the Thuringian state parliament, they proposed measures like the "Tourism Strategy 2035." However, there is no specific information on other parties involved or the exact date of the next concrete discussion in the provided search results.

Christian Schaft, the chairman of the Left faction in the Thuringian state parliament, participated in the meeting. The focus for Voigt remains reliability and security for Thuringia.