Mario Voigt has been elected as the new Minister-President of Thuringia. The CDU politician received 51 of 88 cast votes in the state parliament in Erfurt in the first ballot, with 45 being necessary for a successful election. There were 33 no votes and four abstentions.
The state parliament has a total of 88 members, and the new “Brombeer coalition” of CDU, SPD, and BSW has a combined total of 44 parliamentary seats, lacking a majority. Due to the difficult seat distribution, the election was eagerly anticipated. The Left faction, however, announced in the morning of the election day, after concessions from the new coalition partners, that it would support Voigt’s election.
Voigt had previously said that he would only set his sights on the third ballot if necessary, at which point no absolute majority would be required, and the coalition’s votes would likely suffice. With his election, Voigt succeeds Bodo Ramelow (Left) as Minister-President.
In the state election on September 1, the AfD emerged as the clear strongest force with 32.8% of the votes. The other parties, however, reject cooperation with the party of Björn Höcke. Instead, the Union, as the second-strongest force (23.6%), started negotiations on the Brombeer coalition.
At the center of the negotiations was also the newly founded party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, which was established in January 2024. During the negotiations, it came to disputes between the Thuringian BSW and the federal leadership due to agreements on formulations regarding the Ukraine war. In the end, however, the BSW also agreed to the coalition agreement.