As Germany marked the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 on Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted she would never allow a coalition with the political successors to the wall’s East German architects.
Her intervention followed a remark by a regional governor that upheavals in Germany’s political landscape meant the time had come for the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to be pragmatic.
The remark by Daniel Günther, premier of the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, sparked uproar and forced Dr Merkel to move in swiftly and close down the discussion.
“I back no co-operation with the Left Party – and that for many years,” she said in a chancellery press conference on Monday.
But the debate is unlikely to go away soon, as three state elections in eastern German states next year may see a surge in support for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). That, combined with traditional strong support for the Left Party in eastern states, could make post-election alliances tricky, Mr Günther pointed out.
“If elections do not allow a coalition to be formed against the Left Party, a government capable of acting still has to be formed,” he said. “In that case, the CDU must be pragmatic.”
Three decades
The Left Party, which has some of its roots in East Germany’s ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED), has spent almost three decades on the opposition benches in the united German Bundestag.
But it is a coalition member in Berlin’s city-state coalition, has shared power in several other eastern states and is even the lead coalition partner in the central state of Thüringen.
But at federal level, neither the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) nor the Greens have yet to enter an alliance with the party.
But Mr Günther said that, at state level, there was “no harm” in seeking “sensible solutions with . . . sensible people”. He urged his party to “take off the blinkers” and look around at the political reality in eastern Germany, where the CDU often trails in third place.
That annoyed the East German-raised chancellor so much she said her party would “do everything” to form governments in eastern German states next year without the Left Party.
Her general secretary Anngret Kramp-Karrenbauer insisted the CDU’s ban on alliances with the Left Party – and far-right AfD – was absolute and it “made no difference if there were the odd pragmatic person here or there”.
Criticism
Equally anxious to shut down the debate were CDU politicians seeking re-election this autumn in the western states of Bavaria and Hesse. Further east, however, the criticism was more equivocal, with some CDU figures noting that – almost three decades after the Berlin Wall fell – most leading Left politicians there no longer had anything to do with East Germany.
The Left Party rejected the unlikely approach, calling the CDU the “party of social cutbacks”. Chastened by the response, Mr Günther rowed back, saying he rejected the idea of such a coalition. But he added that, sometimes, voters have other ideas to what politicians want.
