my personal daily heroes (SPD)

A few weeks ago elections were held in the German county Thüringen – which was governed by the Christian conservatives (CDU) for quite a while now. They lost 11.8% votes though and dropped down to 31.2%, and the left party (Die Linke) scored second with an outstanding outcome, leaving the social democrats (SPD) as third party far behind.

It was the choice of the SPD to make up their mind who would govern Thüringen from now on:

• CDU + SPD (48 out of 88 seats)
• SPD + Linke + Greens (51 out of 88 seats)

The ruler of the left party, Bodo Ramelow, even offered the SPD that he would pass on the office of prime minister (which is very unusual, because the left party would have been the biggest party in that coalition) to make it easier for the SPD.

But the SPD chose to form a coalition with the CDU (sic!), disappointing many many (many) voters by ignoring the possibility for a left coalition. The CDU was governing Thüringen alone for 8 years now, and it was the chance for the SPD to bring change to the country.

Now comes the interesting part: when a new coalition is formed, there is a statutory meeting in parliament where the delegates vote for the new prime minister – in this case Christine Lieberknecht, CDU. A simple majority is needed, and Lieberknecht failed twice this morning, receiving only 45 out of 88 votes.

I’m happy to see that there are still decent SPD delegates in this country – on the other hand it’s quite sad to see that there are only 3 out of 18 in Thüringen.

Anyway: thumbs up, guys. Keep going!

Update, one hour later:
Christine Lieberknecht (CDU) was confirmed as prime minister with 57 out of 88 votes. I assume that the FDP is responsible for that, because they are rather in the opposition against CDU + FDP than in the opposition against a left coalition.

(Sources: wikipedia.de for the chart, mdr.de for the content)