2024-09-14 04:33:28
Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Woidke rules out coalition negotiations with Sahra Wagenknecht – at least with her personally.
Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) cannot imagine personally conducting coalition negotiations with Sahra Wagenknecht after the state elections in two weeks. “We don’t talk about coalition negotiations before the election,” Woidke told the “Tagesspiegel” (Friday edition). However, he finds it “unimaginable” that “Ms. Wagenknecht wants to help steer the state’s fortunes as a one-man company from Saarland,” the SPD politician stressed.
After the election, “you negotiate with those who are personally prepared to take responsibility,” argued Woidke. Wagenknecht’s party BSW described Woidke as a “black box” and said: “We have to wait and see whether they are even prepared to talk, whether cooperation would be possible or not.”
He accused Wagenknecht of partially supporting the Kremlin’s narrative. But he advocates supporting Ukraine: “I always say clearly: Ukraine is also about us. If we stop supporting it and Putin subjugates the country, there will be a huge wave of refugees. And Europe would not be any safer.”
A new state parliament will be elected in Brandenburg on September 22. According to a survey published on Thursday by the Infratest dimap institute for Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, the AfD led by top candidate Hans-Christoph Berndt is currently at 27 percent, while Woidke’s SPD is at 23 percent.
In third place with 18 percent is the CDU led by top candidate Jan Redmann. In fourth place with 15 percent is the BSW led by top candidate Robert Crumbach. A coalition of the SPD, CDU and Greens is currently governing Brandenburg.
The BSW, founded less than a year ago, achieved double-digit results in the elections in both Saxony and Thuringia and will now hold talks in both federal states about possible coalition formations.