Cabinet Ringstorff I

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Cabinet Ringstorff I
4. State government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Harald Ringstorff
Prime Minister Harald Ringstorff
choice 1998
Legislative period 3.
education November 3, 1998
The End November 6, 2002
Duration 4 years and 3 days
predecessor Cabinet page II
successor Cabinet Ringstorff II
composition
Party (s) SPD and PDS
representation
Parliament
47/71
Opposition leader Eckhardt Rehberg ( CDU )

The Ringstorff I cabinet was the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after the state elections in 1998 . It was the first red-red coalition to include the PDS in Germany. Prime Minister was Harald Ringstorff ( SPD ). The government was in office from November 3, 1998 to November 6, 2002.

requirements

In the second legislative period from 1994 to 1998, a grand coalition ruled under Prime Minister Berndt Seite ( Cabinet Seite II ). The top candidates for the state elections were Page for the CDU and Harald Ringstorff for the SPD .

The SPD (34.3%) became the strongest force in the state parliament for the first time, ahead of the CDU (30.2%) and the PDS (24.4%). Since both the FDP (1.6%) and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen (2.7%) as well as the right-wing extremist parties ( DVU , Republicans and NPD together received 4.5%) clearly failed to get into the state parliament, there was there are only three parties in the state parliament, as it has been since 1994 The state election resulted in 27 seats for the SPD, 24 for the CDU and 20 for the PDS. In view of the election results, the SPD top candidate Harald Ringstorff, state chairman of the SPD since 1990, parliamentary group chairman from 1990 to 1994 and since 1996 and Minister for Economic Affairs and Affairs of the European Union from 1994 to 1996, was Prime Minister-designate. The balance of power allowed the SPD both a continuation of the coalition with the CDU, this time with the CDU as a junior partner, and an alliance with the PDS.

First red-red state government in Germany

The alliance of SPD and PDS represented the first red-red coalition in the Federal Republic. Before that, there was only a red-green minority government in Saxony-Anhalt from 1994 to 1998, the Höppner I cabinet, which was tolerated by the PDS (so-called Magdeburg model ).

During the coalition negotiations , the PDS was hardly able to push through any demands. Only the regular request to the Gauck authority for public service employees was suspended. The party received the three ministries for labor and construction, social affairs and the environment. After the third state election, there was a third coalition in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, after a black and yellow government had been in office from 1990 to 1994 ( Gomolka cabinet , cabinet page I ).

The participation of the SED successor party, the PDS, provoked heated discussions nationwide. Critics spoke of a “taboo break” or a “fall from man”, others of a “normalization” in dealing with a democratically elected party that received almost a quarter of the votes. Ringstorff had already flirted openly with the first red-red coalition under his leadership in 1994. From a strategic point of view, Ringstorff saw in the alliance, not least of all, an opportunity to “disenchant” the opposition party PDS by integrating it into the government. When Ringstorff was elected Prime Minister, eight members of his own camp refused to vote. This was taken as a clear indication of the reluctance in parts of their own party to cooperate with the post-communist PDS.

The PDS was unable to implement the announced policy change in everyday practical work and remained largely a majority procurer for the SPD. The coalition's record was modest. After a four-year term in office, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had an unemployment rate of 20%, the gross domestic product had fallen continuously since 1999 and the establishment of large industrial projects such as the production of the Airbus in Rostock failed. Nevertheless, the government, especially Prime Minister Ringstorff with his presidential administration, was popular.

The SPD-PDS government was confirmed in the state elections in 2002 and lasted a total of eight years. A continuation was also possible after the state elections in 2006 , but the SPD opted for a grand coalition.

List of Cabinet Members

minister Surname Political party State Secretaries
Prime Minister Harald Ringstorff SPD Otto Ebnet , SPD (until 2001)
Frank Tidick , SPD (from 2001) ( Head of the State Chancellery )
Karla Staszak , SPD (Parliamentary State Secretary, Women's and Equal Opportunities Commissioner of the State Government)
Tilo Braune , SPD ( Federal Agent )
Deputy Prime Minister Helmut Holter PDS
Interior Gottfried Timm SPD Hartmut Bosch , SPD
Judiciary Harald Ringstorff
until September 19, 2000
Erwin Sellering
since September 20, 2000 		SPD Joachim Babendreyer , SPD (until approx. 2001)
Dieter Schubmann-Wagner , SPD (from January 2002)
Finances Sigrid Keler SPD Jost Mediger , SPD
economy Rolf Eggert
until April 17, 2001
Otto Ebnet
since April 17, 2001 		SPD Wilhelm Burke (until 2001)
Reinhard Meyer , SPD (from 2001)
Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Till Backhaus SPD Frank Tidick , SPD (until 2001)
Karl Otto Kreer , SPD (from 2001)
environment Wolfgang Methling PDS Dietmar Glitz
Education, science and culture Peter Kauffold SPD Manfred Hiltner , SPD
Work and construction Helmut Holter PDS Joachim Wegrad , PDS (until 2001)
Klaus Sühl , PDS (from 2001)
Health and social Martina Bunge PDS Axel Azzola , SPD (until 2000)
Fredy Drozd , PDS (from 2001)

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Karsten Grabow: The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Parties and party systems in the German states , edited by Uwe Jun, Melanie Haas, Oskar Niedermayer, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 271.
  2. ↑ a b Karsten Grabow: The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Parties and party systems in the German states , edited by Uwe Jun, Melanie Haas, Oskar Niedermayer, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 265. [Further literature on this debate is specified there under note 2]
  3. ↑ Karsten Grabow: The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Parties and party systems in the German states , edited by Uwe Jun, Melanie Haas, Oskar Niedermayer, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 269.
  4. ↑ a b Karsten Grabow: The party system of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Parties and party systems in the German states , edited by Uwe Jun, Melanie Haas, Oskar Niedermayer, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 272.