Ursula Nonnemacher, the former Brandenburg Health Minister (Greens), levels severe accusations against Minister-President Dietmar Woidke (SPD). “Meanwhile, he is acting according to the motto: ‘If you’re not willing, then I’ll use force'”, she writes in a guest article for the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”.
Nonnemacher was dismissed by Woidke during a ongoing federal council meeting in late November, where the hospital reform was being discussed. Woidke and Nonnemacher had different content-related positions. For the former minister, this was a “low point in political culture”. Woidke had taken his entire political style to a new extreme: “This has a somewhat patriarchal quality to it”.
For his strategy “I or Fascism” – Woidke had run the state election campaign with the statement that he would only remain minister-president if the SPD came in ahead of the AfD – a high price is being paid: “Whoever puts on such a show hurts democracy. Because then the voters no longer vote for their convictions, but for the lesser evil.” Nonnemacher’s diagnosis: “Unfortunately, populism is seeping more and more into democratic parties.