Brandenburg’s Minister-President Dietmar Woidke (SPD) has defended the dismissal of his former Health Minister Ursula Nonnemacher (Greens) amid the dispute over the hospital reform. “I couldn’t do anything else” Woidke told the “Tagesspiegel” and “Potsdamer Neuesten Nachrichten” (Wednesday’s editions). “I would handle it the same way today. She didn’t leave me a choice.”
The head of government accused the former minister of trying to prevent the referral of the matter to the mediation committee in the Bundesrat without democratic legitimacy. “It wasn’t about the relationship between Ursula Nonnemacher and me. It was about the relationship between Ursula Nonnemacher and this state” Woidke said. He rejected Nonnemacher’s latest accusations in the “Zeit” which portrayed him as a symbol of a “low point in political culture” and a patriarchal political style.
Woidke regrets that the Greens and the Left have not been represented in the parliament since the Brandenburg election, but he does not see himself as responsible for the outcome of his polarizing election campaign against the AfD. “Every party sharpens its election campaigns on its top candidates. I went into this election with the clear message: I will only remain in office as Minister-President if I win this election” Woidke said.