Thuringia | BSW politician with sympathies for majorities with AfD

In the Thuringian regional association of the BSW, at least in parts of the party, there is obviously some frustration with the Social Democratic coalition partner – and a certain willingness to try to govern the state together with the CDU as a minority coalition, which would then also rely on the AfD in order to gain political majorities in the state parliament.

"We're letting ourselves be bullied by the six percent party, the SPD," read a now-deleted Instagram post by BSW politician Tina Rolle. The SPD only wants to seek majorities outside of the AfD, which gives the Left Party many political options. "A minority government with the CDU would give us significantly more room to maneuver, allowing us to use changing majorities to better reflect and implement the BSW's program ," it continued.

In the corresponding post – numerous screenshots of which are still circulating in political Erfurt – this statement is supported by a survey on the social network. The question was: "What do you think about changing majorities?" 61 percent of those who participated in the vote supported such a parliamentary model. It is unclear how many people participated in the survey. Rolle's account has approximately 1,300 followers.

"Underground things keep coming to light at the BSW."

Georg Maier , SPD state chairman in Thuringia

The Blackberry coalition of the CDU, BSW, and SPD holds 44 of the 88 parliamentary seats in the state parliament and thus lacks a majority of its own. The alliance relies on at least indirect support from the Left Party to pass legislation, as the three parties ruled out cooperation with the AfD in their coalition agreement. A model of shifting majorities would allow the CDU and BSW to seek the necessary votes from the AfD. The Thuringian state association of the AfD is listed as a proven right-wing extremist target of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Tina Rolle is a BSW politician and restaurateur based in eastern Thuringia. She says she works as a constituency employee for the chairman of the Thuringian BSW parliamentary group, Frank Augsten, and also sits on the city council of Meuselwitz, a small town in the Altenburg region. Her supervisor, as the first chairman of a Thuringian parliamentary group, recently met with AfD parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke. In the 2024 state election, Rolle ran for a seat in the state parliament in Erfurt, ranking 26th on the BSW list – and thus narrowly missed out on a seat in the state parliament.

BSW state chairwoman Katja Wolf reacted cautiously to this post, which represents a long-standing stance within the BSW in the Free State, but which has rarely been displayed so publicly. "This is a political position that I do not share, but one that I can tolerate," Wolf told "nd." The post was "honest" because it represented an assessment of the situation that actually exists within her party, even if this assessment was based on false ideas. "'Changing majorities' sounds romantic, but it is not at all," Wolf said. Rather, it is very strenuous for a minority coalition to secure majorities in a parliament.

Governing with shifting majorities is "the worst option for Thuringia in the current situation," Wolf said. However, reflecting on the nature of cooperation within a coalition is never wrong, as such a situation is always an opportunity "to consider whether the coalition we are in is the best one for Thuringia," Wolf said. Neither she nor Thuringian BSW co-chairman Gernot Süßmuth stated they were aware of the post before being confronted with it by our newspaper.

In SPD circles, however, the post has been causing considerable discontent with the BSW for days – and reinforcing the views of all those who believe that joining the Blackberry coalition was a mistake. However, the state chairman of the Social Democrats, Georg Maier, warns against paying too much attention to the post. "Such voices from the second row are annoying, including me personally, no question," he said. For him, however, what is stated in the Blackberry coalition's coalition agreement and what political leaders at the BSW, such as Wolf, are saying and doing is much more relevant. "But of course: Subterranean things keep coming to light at the BSW," Maier said.