In latest effort to keep AfD out of government and save German democracy, ex-Stasi officer is appointed to a cabinet minister post in Thüringen
Here in Germany, we are defending democracy at levels that have never been thought possible before.
Last Thursday, the weird and distinctly rodentine Mario Voigt, chief of the Thuringian Christian Democrats (CDU), became Minister President of Thüringen at the head of his so-called “blackberry” coalition. He cobbled together this political monstrosity from his own CDU (black), the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (purple) and the Social Democrats (red).
This blackberry government is the most absurd political construct that the Federal Republic has ever seen. It was not called into being because anybody wants a blackberry government, or because a blackberry government makes any pragmatic sense, and still less because the parties of the blackberry government have anything in common. The sole purpose of the blackberry government is to keep Alternative für Deutschland out of power. The AfD, you will remember, emerged from the September elections as by far the strongest party in Thüringen, with 32 of 88 seats. It is not easy to govern over the heads of a party commanding that much strength, but it is necessary, because allowing the AfD as clear electoral victor to form their own government would be anti-democratic.
The CDU years ago concluded an “incompatibility resolution” with the Die Linke, or the Left Party. There were many reasons for this, among them the fact that Die Linke is nothing but the rebranded successor to the communist Socialist Unity Party (SED) that governed the DDR. Another reason was specifically Sahra Wagenknecht, a prominent Linke politician who long maintained a hard-left political line. The BSW is of course a rebranded offshoot of Die Linke, and one dominated by none other than Wagenknecht herself, but now it is suddenly fine for the CDU to enter coalitions with them because otherwise the AfD would be in government.
These are compromises so extremely democratic that they border on a betrayal of the CDU’s own voters, and still they were not enough. The CDU the SPD and the BSW together command only 44 of the seats in the state parliament. Because 44 is merely half of 88, and not a majority of 88, Voigt could only win the office of Minister President with substantial support from Die Linke. The blackberry coalition will henceforth require the cooperation of Die Linke to do anything at all, which is another way of saying that Die Linke will be a fourth unofficial partner in this blackberry enterprise. It is everybody against the AfD in Thüringen, all to save Thuringian democracy from the preferences of Thuringian voters.
The blackberry coalition is guaranteed to bear many bizarre fruits in the coming years. Indeed, it has already borne one such fruit, in the elevation of Tilo Kummer (BSW) to a post in the state cabinet. Henceforth, Kummer will act as Minister for Environment, Energy, Nature Conservation and Forestry.
This development is amazing, because before reunifcation Kummer served in the notorious East German Staatssicherheitsdienst, or Stasi.
In fact, Kummer’s promotion marks the first time in the history of the Federal Republic that a former Stasi officer has been named to a cabinet post. Kummer’s family enjoyed close connections with the Socialist Unity Party, and upon completing secondary school he became a non-commissioned officer in the Feliks Dzierzynski Guards Regiment – the Stasi paramilitary organisation. Kummer pursued a political career with Die Linke after reunification, serving for 20 years as a member of the Thüringen parliament.1 Since 2014, his party ruled Thüringen in a minority government under Bodo Ramelow, but in all those years not even Ramelow dared appoint this ex-Stasi man to his cabinet.
The purpose of a system is what it does. The cordon sanitaire has not only kept the AfD out of power in Thüringen and everywhere else. It has also vastly magnified the power of the left, even as the tide has turned against leftist politics and parties like the Greens, the SPD and Die Linke face ever diminishing electoral success. In Thüringen specifically, the cordon sanitaire placed Die Linke in power for a full decade and brought the unusual ravings of fringe leftist groups to bear on the problem of marginalising “the extreme right.” Now Voigt has an ex-Stasi officer in his government thanks to the cordon sanitaire, and whatever Voigt does for the next four years will require votes from the rebranded DDR-era Socialist Unity Party.
At least the AfD are not in government, though! That would be really, really bad for democracy. Even worse than having ex-Stasi in government, apparently.
In 2020, Kummer left the Landtag to become mayor of Hildburghausen. He performed so poorly in this position that the residents voted him out of office in 2023.
I can't even think how to comment on this! So, some of the people voted for the AfD which leans to the right, some of the others voted for the CDU which leans in the middle but facing right and others voted for Left parties which lean, obviously, to the left. Only the AfD got more votes than the others but not a majority so everyone needed to find partners in order to govern. But absolutely every other party thinks the AfD is Literally Hitler so they won't partner with them. So they have to partner with former communists and Stasi officers who, you could argue, are so far left as to almost meet Literally HItler round the other side! And the dumb thing seems to be that the AfD don't actually seem particularly right-wing, fascist, totalitarian, nazi, mad, dangerous, ideological. They seem pretty old fashioned conservative. Or have I misunderstood the complicated German system?
Whoever named it 'blackberry coalition' lacked imagination. It should be called 'gangrene coalition' instead.