Left Party in Thuringia | Thuringian Left Party leader: "Both will be good police officers"

Ms. Maurer, Mr. Plötner, how were the first few days after you were surprisingly elected state chair of the Left Party at a party conference in Ilmenau ?

Plötner: Very intense, definitely, because we had to quickly come to terms with the fact that we were suddenly chairmen. But, quite honestly, I think Katja Maurer and I handled it very well, especially by coordinating a lot among ourselves.

Did the leaders of the Blackberry coalition politely congratulate you on your election?

Maurer: CDU and SPD, yes, we received a polite letter of congratulations. I haven't heard anything from the BSW leadership. However, the BSW Vice President of the State Parliament, Steffen Quasebarth , made a real faux pas: He congratulated the wrong person on his election in the State Parliament. He apparently hadn't realized who was really at the helm of our party.

How many comrades expressed concerns, along the lines of “What are you actually doing to yourself?”

Maurer: A lot. I think many people are very aware that the state chairmanship is an honorary position and that I already work very hard with my state parliament and city council mandates. Therefore, there's a great deal of understanding that I'll have to delegate tasks in the future and prioritize more strongly.

As a father of three small children, it is probably no different for you, Mr. Plötner?

Plötner: Exactly, and that's why, of course, I've received such messages. But my family knows that I'm a leftist through and through, and I have their full support. We'll definitely get through this.

Where do you want to set your political priorities?

Maurer: We will first examine the results of a member survey commissioned by the old state executive committee, which are now available. Due to the large number of new members, we are a party in transition, and everyone has a sense of what needs to happen and what the members want. But until now, there has been little empirical data on this. That's different now. Some things confirm our feelings a little, some don't. For example, the survey shows that around 20 percent of the party doesn't yet feel fully engaged. It's very important that this changes, because we can decide whatever we want at party conferences: If the members don't spread our views widely, it's all for nothing. That's why we need to quickly create tools to intensively involve them. After all, 90 percent of the party's work is done on a voluntary basis. So, working with members internally will definitely be a focus of our work.

Plötner: This will also include getting our new members up to speed on questions like: What is a local association? What does a district executive board do? What is the state association responsible for? What distinguishes the parliamentary group from the party? We still have a lot to do in this area.

And national politics?

Maurer: We're now back in opposition, at a time when we're experiencing austerity policies at the federal and state levels that we don't agree with, but to which we must respond. This will definitely shape our work in the coming months.

Which brings us to the upcoming negotiations for the state's 2026/2027 double budget...

Plötner: First of all, it's absolutely vital for us to defend social achievements from the Red-Red-Green coalition era, such as the state program "Solidarity between Generations." Then we will insist that the third year of free kindergarten be reflected in the next budget, as we agreed with the Blackberry coalition during the 2025 budget negotiations. And then, of course, we will also insist that sufficient funding be made available for education and healthcare, for example, including through the federal funds that will flow to Thuringia. We also expect the state government to work with us now the way we worked with the CDU, namely to negotiate with the constructive opposition on equal terms.

Doesn't she?

Plötner: You're familiar with the statements made by our parliamentary secretary in the state parliament, Katja Mitteldorf, who hasn't experienced much of this level playing field. The CDU, BSW, and SPD will have to make significant gains if they truly want to shape this country with the only constructive and democratic opposition force.

Ms. Maurer, during the negotiations on the 2025 state budget, your parliamentary group consistently insisted that no money would be allocated for detention centers. Now the state government has "found" money for it in the budget. Do you consider this a breach of trust?

Maurer: For me, the crucial question at this point is not whether there has been a breach of trust with my party. If we're honest, we always knew that the state government could find such money in the budget execution process if it wanted to. I think the creation of deportation detention centers is disastrous, especially for the people who are supposed to be locked up there. But I find another point much more crucial for the current budget negotiations: We are now in a situation where social organizations are actually competing with each other for funding because the Blackberry wants to save money, and BSW Finance Minister Katja Wolf has announced that she will review funding programs according to very strict criteria. We will pay close attention to ensuring that there is enough money available even for smaller projects in the end.

Does the coalition have to prepare itself for the fact that the new state executive committee of the Left Party will be less willing to compromise than the old one, or do you want to play good cop, bad cop in the coming months?

Plötner: We'll both be good police officers, even if I might have a little more legroom than Katja because I'm not a member of the state parliament's parliamentary group. And in this, we will coordinate very closely with our parliamentary group leader, Christian Schaft, as we already do.

After the Ilmenau party conference, where you were elected, the country's most prominent leftist, former State Premier Bodo Ramelow, published a long essay on his website, pondering whether he was distancing himself from his party or whether his party was distancing itself from him. How do you respond to this statement?

Maurer: I think Bodo was expressing a growing pain that we all have to some extent, because we're all pondering and figuring out where our party is headed. I talked to him about it at length, several times. I then told him: Bodo, you're our celebrity, of course, but in the end, you're also a simple comrade who's going through exactly what everyone else is going through. We have a good relationship, albeit one that's sometimes contentious. I think he understood what I meant.

If Ramelow expressed a feeling that many in the party have with his statements, then you also have a pretty big problem...

Plötner: It will be Katja's and my job to tell people that we will not allow ourselves to be divided, even if we may have different views on some issues.

Maurer: Of course, it's difficult to deal with contradictions. Many people would like clearer answers, including people who are new to us. But we are a heterogeneous and contentious party. That hasn't bothered me for a long time.