The Left Thuringia

	The Left Thuringia
; Susanne Hennig-Wellsow
Chairperson	Susanne Hennig-Wellsow
Deputy	Steffen Dittes ; Heike Werner
Treasurer	Holger Hänsgen
executive Director	Mathias Günther
Establishment date	14./15. July 2007
Place of foundation	Gotha
Headquarters	Eugen-Richter-Strasse 44 ; 99085 Erfurt
Landtag mandates	29/90
Number of members	4,108 (as of December 31, 2019)
Website	www.die-linke-thueringen.de

Die Linke Thuringia is one of the sixteen regional associations of the party Die Linke and represents the party in the Free State of Thuringia . It was founded in its current form in 2007 and emerged from the Thuringian regional association of the PDS , which was founded in the summer of 1990 . After the PDS or Left had been the largest opposition party in the Thuringian state parliament from 1994 to 2014, it came to government after the state elections in 2014 and appointed Bodo Ramelow, its first and only prime minister nationwide.

history

Early years

The Thuringian regional association of the PDS was founded on June 30th / 1. Founded in July 1990 through the merger of the previous district associations Erfurt , Suhl and Gera and the district associations Altenburg , Schmölln and Artern . Gabi Zimmer was elected as the first state chairman . For the state election on October 14, 1990 , the party ran as Left List-PDS together with Nelken , fdj , KPD and the United Left (VL). Your top candidate for the state elections was Klaus Höpcke , former deputy GDR culture minister and member of the freely elected People's Chamber . The list received 9.7% of the second vote in the state elections and thus won nine seats in the first Thuringian state parliament ; Klaus Höpcke became chairman of the parliamentary group. The parliamentary group included seven members of the PDS as well as Jörg Pöse from the VL and Cornelia Geithner from the fdj. On December 2, the party received 8.7% of the second vote in the federal election in 1990 in the state and sent two Thuringian MPs to Bonn .

The suicide of the Jena Bundestag member Gerhard Riege caused a stir on February 15, 1992 after it became known that he had been in contact with the MfS in the 1950s . At the end of 1992 the parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament lost a member when the MP Jörg Pöse converted to the Greens . In the summer of 1993 the party supported the workers' protest movement against the closure of the Bischofferode potash plant .

On June 12, 1994 the Thuringian PDS achieved double-digit results in the European elections (16.9%) and the local elections (15.7%). Four months later, the party in Thuringia received 17.1% of the second vote in the 1994 Bundestag election , which enabled it to send four members to the Bundestag, and 16.6% in the state elections . This resulted in an arithmetical majority in the state parliament for a coalition of the PDS with the SPD . However, the SPD did not enter into any talks with the PDS, because at that time it was not yet considered capable of governing (in neighboring Saxony-Anhalt , however, a red-green coalition had already existed for a few months under tolerance by the PDS; see Magdeburg model ). Instead, a coalition of CDU and SPD was formed, so that the PDS (since the FDP and the Greens were no longer represented in the state parliament) was the only opposition party in the state parliament for the next five years.

The PDS as the largest opposition party

In January 1997, in the Erfurt Declaration, almost 40 artists, intellectuals, trade unionists and politicians spoke out in favor of more social justice and a policy change through closer cooperation between the SPD, the Greens and the PDS. The first signatories included the union officials and later left-wing politicians Bodo Ramelow and Frank Spieth .

In the 1998 federal election , Ruth Fuchs ran as the top candidate for the PDS Thuringia. The party achieved 21.0% of the first votes and 21.2% of the second votes in the Free State and moved into the Bundestag with five members. At the 5th state party conference in Gera at the beginning of December 1998, Dieter Hausold was elected as the new state chairman, after Gabi Zimmer had not run after eight years. In 1999 the party in Thuringia received 20.6% of the votes in the European elections , 17.9% in the local elections and 21.4% of the second votes in the state elections . This made the PDS the second strongest force in the Thuringian state parliament for the first time, but had no chance of participating in the government because of the clear CDU election victory (under Bernhard Vogel , 51% were achieved). Gabi Zimmer became the parliamentary group leader.

In October 2000 Gabi Zimmer, PDS regional chairman for many years, was elected national chairman of her party in Cottbus . Her successor as the PDS parliamentary group leader in the state parliament was initially Werner Buse , from November 2001 Bodo Ramelow . In the 2002 federal election , the PDS only received 18% of the second vote in Thuringia and thus performed worse than in 1998. Since the party missed the five percent hurdle nationwide , no Thuringian MPs could enter the Bundestag. Gabi Zimmer from Thuringia was initially re-elected as federal chairwoman at the Gera federal party congress in October 2002, but Lothar Bisky was elected as the new party leader at a special party congress in June 2003 .

At its 7th state party conference in Lobenstein in September 2003, the Thuringian PDS named Bodo Ramelow as its first candidate for the office of Thuringian Prime Minister . In the state elections on June 13, 2004 , the party achieved a second vote result of 26.1% and won five of the 44 direct seats. It moved into the state parliament with 28 members and was thus able to further expand its lead as the second strongest force over the SPD. However, the CDU under Dieter Althaus defended its absolute majority despite the loss of votes. In the European elections , which took place at the same time , the party won 25.3% in Thuringia; Gabi Zimmer, who ran for third place on the federal list, moved into the European Parliament. In the local elections on June 27, 2004 , the party was able to record votes and was among other things the strongest force in the city councils of the independent cities of Gera , Jena and Suhl .

Merger to form the Left Party

After Chancellor Gerhard Schröder announced early elections to the Bundestag for autumn that year in May 2005, the Federal PDS and WASG decided to run together. For this purpose the PDS renamed itself on July 17, 2005 to Die Linkspartei.PDS . The Thuringian regional association followed this step on July 29th and was now called Die Linkspartei.PDS Thuringia . Bodo Ramelow was the top candidate in Thuringia. In the federal election on September 18, 2005 , the party then achieved its best result to date with 8.7% at federal level. In Thuringia, with 26.1% of the second vote, it was the second strongest force, ahead of the CDU, and sent five members to the Bundestag. Ramelow became deputy chairman of the left parliamentary group there . Dieter Hausold was elected as his successor as parliamentary group leader in the Thuringian state parliament; his office as chairman of the regional association was taken over in March 2006 by the previous regional manager Knut Korschewsky .

On March 16, 2007, Knut Korschewsky and the Thuringian state chairman of the WASG, Siegfried Gütthoff, signed the agreement to unite the two state associations. In a strike vote, 88.8% of the Thuringian party members voted in favor of the merger of the parties. After on 15./16. June 2007 in Berlin both parties at the federal level united to the party Die Linke , the Thuringian regional associations followed on 14/15. July in Gotha this step. Knut Korschewsky remained state chairman of the united party, Ina Leukefeld and Jörg Kubitzki his deputies.

Failed government participation in 2009

For the election year 2009, Bodo Ramelow was again nominated for the state elections, and Ralph Lenkert, who was still independent at that time, was nominated as the top candidate in Thuringia for the federal election. In the European elections on June 7, 2009 , Gabi Zimmer again ran for third place on the federal list. Although the party achieved its best result so far at the federal level with 7.5% of the votes, it suffered slight losses in Thuringia compared to 2004. The local elections that took place at the same time also suffered losses with 20.7% of the votes.

In the state elections on August 30, 2009 , the Thuringian Left was able to increase its good result of 2004 with 27.4% of the second vote and 14 direct mandates. It was less than four percentage points behind the CDU, which lost its previous absolute majority significantly. Mathematically, a coalition with the SPD (with or without the inclusion of the Greens) would have been possible. Exploratory talks between the Left Party and both parties took place in September. On September 27, the party achieved its best result to date in the general election with 11.9%. In Thuringia, it won 29.1% of the first votes and 28.8% of the second votes, which is a further increase compared to 2005. Ralph Lenkert ( Bundestag constituency Gera - Jena - Saale-Holzland-Kreis ) and Jens Petermann ( Bundestag constituency Suhl - Schmalkalden-Meiningen - Hildburghausen ), both independent at the time, won the first Thuringian direct seats for the Bundestag for the Left Party.

At the state level, the SPD and its state chairman Christoph Matschie finally decided on coalition negotiations with the CDU, which led to the formation of a black-red coalition under Christine Lieberknecht . The left thus remained the strongest oppositional force in Thuringia. Bodo Ramelow was re-elected chairman of the left-wing parliamentary group in the state parliament after four years in the German Bundestag.

After the resignation of Federal President Horst Köhler , Die Linke nominated Luc Jochimsen , member of the Bundestag elected in Thuringia, as a candidate for the election of the German Federal President in 2010 , in which she received 126 votes in the first ballot and 123 in the second. In August 2010, the Left lost a member of the Thuringian state parliament when Thomas Hartung , who was directly elected in the Weimar constituency, converted to the SPD parliamentary group.

The local elections in Thuringia in 2012 were a great success for the party: With Birgit Keller in the Nordhausen district , Petra Enders in the Ilm district , Michaele Sojka in the Altenburger Land district and Katja Wolf in the independent city of Eisenach , she was able to hold the position of district administrator and mayor for the first time in Thuringia occupy. In addition, Ralf Hauboldt was elected mayor of a district town in Sömmerda .

The election of the state list for the 2013 federal election resulted in a scandal on March 2, 2013: Birgit Klaubert , who was nominated by the state executive for the top candidacy , received only 49.2 of the votes at the state party conference in Friedrichroda and therefore did not receive the required majority. Thereupon Klaubert decided not to run again; in their place, Kersten Steinke was finally elected as the top candidate. In the federal elections on September 22, 2013, the party achieved a nationwide 8.6 percent and in Thuringia 23.43 percent of the second votes worse than in 2009. The two directly elected representatives Ralph Lenkert and Jens Petermann lost their constituencies to the candidates of the CDU ; However, Lenkert was able to move back into the Bundestag via the state list. At the first meeting of the fourth state party conference in Suhl , Knut Korschewsky did not resume as state chairman in November 2013; in his place, Susanne Hennig was elected state chairman with 56.7% of the vote.

Ruling party under Bodo Ramelow

Bodo Ramelow has been Prime Minister of Thuringia since December 5, 2014

At the second session of the fourth state party conference on March 22, 2014 in Sömmerda, the party adopted its program for the upcoming state elections in 2014 . A week later the state list was drawn up in Erfurt, with Bodo Ramelow again being elected as the top candidate with 93.2%. On May 25, 2014, the Left achieved 22.5% in the 2014 European elections in Thuringia, which was again a slightly worse result than in 2009; Gabi Zimmer was re-elected to the European Parliament. In the local elections that took place at the same time, however , it achieved slight gains and was able to increase its nationwide result to 21.9%.

In the state elections on September 14, 2014, Die Linke received 29.4% of the first and 28.2% of the second votes and thus achieved their best result so far in a state election in Germany. At the same time, however, seven of the 14 direct mandates won in the 2009 state elections were lost to the CDU candidates; a further seven were defended and two were newly won. In total, the party moved into the state parliament with 28 members. In contrast to 2009, because of the poor performance of the SPD, this time there was no arithmetical majority for a red-red coalition ; and a coalition that included the Greens only had a majority in the state parliament. After exploratory rounds between the three parties, in which Susanne Hennig, Bodo Ramelow, Birgit Keller and Steffen Harzer participated on behalf of the Left , the Thuringian SPD let its members vote on the start of coalition negotiations with the Left and the Greens, who did so with 69.93% of the Votes in favor. The coalition negotiations then took place from November 5 to 19, 2014. The elaborated coalition agreement was accepted on December 2, 2014 through strike votes in the regional associations of the Left (94%) and Greens (84.3%). On December 5, 2014, Bodo Ramelow was elected Prime Minister of the Thuringian State Parliament. He needed a second ballot to get the required 46 votes. Immediately after his election, he appointed the Ramelow I cabinet , which for the Left, in addition to the Prime Minister, was the ministers Birgit Klaubert ( education, youth and sport ), Birgit Keller ( infrastructure and agriculture ) and Heike Werner ( work, social affairs, health, women and family ) as well as the Minister for Federal and European Affairs and Head of the State Chancellery Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff . The first red-red-green state government and the first Prime Minister of the Left Party in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany were in office.

After Ramelow took office on December 10, 2014, state chairwoman Susanne Hennig-Wellsow was also elected chairwoman of the left-wing parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament. In order to separate office and mandate , the two cabinet members Bodo Ramelow and Birgit Klaubert resigned their mandates in the Thuringian state parliament on March 31, 2015; Half a year later, Minister Anja Siegesmund of the Greens also followed this step. With the appointment of the previous Nordhausen District Administrator Birgit Keller to the state government, the Left lost one of its three district administrator posts in Thuringia, as the SPD candidate Matthias Jendricke emerged as the winner from the necessary new elections on April 26 and May 10, 2015 .

In the 2017 Bundestag election , the party with top candidate Martina Renner received 16.9% of the second vote and won only three seats in the Bundestag instead of five; only in 1990 did the PDS in Thuringia do worse.