Who wants or… doesn’t want to cooperate in Thuringia and Saxony after Sunday’s state elections with the third party-regulator, the new Alliance of Sarah Wagenknecht (BSW)? The Christian Democrats, first in Saxony and second in Thuringiathey will have to give an answer in the face of the risk of non-governance and the options they have to get out of the parliamentary maths go through the left-wing – according to others far-left- Alliance of Sarah Wagenknecht.

Already on the night of the elections, the Wagenknecht Alliance openly expressed its positive attitude to talk with the Christian Democrats to form a government and thus de facto exclude the far-right Alternative for Germany from power.

The “camps” of the Christian Democrats in the two states have also shown in recent days readiness, at least for a first dialogue: In Thuringia with both the Wagenknecht Alliance and the Social Democrats. In Saxony, numerically, it would be possible to achieve a Christian Democratic majority with the Wagenknecht Alliance and the Social Democrats or the Greens.

Ambiguous message Mertz

Sarah Wagenknecht, who is behind the consultations in both states since she took over the election campaign, has already set conditions for her party’s participation even in local governments. However, conditions concerning federal policy: the change of its attitude Germany at Ukrainian and the change in the new doctrine of German security policy that may soon bring American long-range missiles to German soil.

Christian Democratic leader Friedrich Merz on Tuesday openly expressed reservations about a future alliance with the Wagenknecht Alliance at the federal level because of its positions. However, from then on it left the field of action free for the two Christian Democratic politicians, Mario Vogt in Thuringia and Michael Kretzmer in Saxony for possible cooperation with the Wagenknecht Alliance at the state level.

Violent “group of 40” reaction

At the same time, 40 Christian Democrats officials are openly against any cooperation with Sarah Wagenknecht and say her positions run counter to everything the Christian Union parties have stood for in the history of Federal Germany: close ties with the West but and EU recruitment and accession to NATO as the greatest peacekeeping operation in history. This is what the Christian Democrat politician Frank Zarfeld, who co-signs the positions of the “group of 40”, says in Tagesspiegel.

The same group, according to the same newspaper, also includes Roderick Kiesewetter, the representative of the Christian Democrats for Foreign Policy matters, who said: “The BSW wants to undermine the democratic center, including the Christian Union. It aims to undermine core values ​​and therefore a partnership with it should be excluded.”

And Christian Democrat MEP Dennis Radke said both BSW and AfD actually want to destroy the Christian Union, because it is “the last bastion of the political centre”. He even warned that if they cooperated with Sarah Wagenknecht, the Christian Democrats “would be led to the abyss”.