Left ready to find ways with CDU to keep AfD from joining government

With an eye to the upcoming state elections in Saxony, the Left Party is prepared to find ways with the CDU to keep the AfD from joining the government, according to parliamentary group leader Rico Gebhardt. "If it is really about the purely fictitious situation to date that there are only three factions left in Saxony's state parliament with the CDU, AfD and Left Party, I believe that many members of my party can be taught that the AfD must not have anything to decide here," Gebhardt told the "Sächsische Zeitung" (Thursday).

The Left Party is basically willing to talk to the Saxon CDU about a toleration model that has yet to be determined - if only three parties are represented in the Saxon parliament after the election. But the two parties are very much apart, which is why it is currently "rather in the realm of the improbable" that Saxony's left and the CDU cooperate politically in any way.

First, the Christian Democrats would have to do their homework. "But it would be much more important that the CDU clarifies a few things for itself beforehand," Gebhardt said. Schleswig-Holstein's CDU Prime Minister Daniel Günther had already admonished in 2018 that his party must finally clarify its relationship with the left. Gebhardt, however, said he was not sure whether the CDU and in particular the Saxon CDU had done so.

In Saxony, a new state parliament will be elected on September 1, 2024. According to an Insa poll from the end of August, so far only the CDU, the AfD and the Left can hope for a safe entry into the state parliament, while the voter approval for the SPD, the Greens and the FDP is currently only just above the necessary five-percent hurdle. In principle, however, polls only reflect the opinion at the time of the survey and are not forecasts on the election outcome.