- Thuringian criticism of SPD summit decision on US missiles
Thuringia's SPD Interior Minister Georg Maier criticizes the position of his own party leadership on the deployment of US missiles in Germany. Maier expressed surprise at the Monday decision, in which the SPD executive committee supports the deployment of long-range US weapons in Germany, and criticized the timing of it.
"The decision does not make it easier for us in the campaign," said the top candidate for the state election on September 1st in an interview with Deutschlandfunk. He explicitly did not criticize the actual content of the decision. "National security interests come first, but I'm concerned about how this came about and was communicated." He would have liked to have been informed about the step beforehand, said Maier.
The decision states, among other things, that the deployment of weapons is not a confrontational build-up, but a strengthening of Germany's defense and the alliance capability of NATO and the EU with weapons systems that Russia has had for years.
Oil in the campaign fire
The issue of war and peace in relation to Russia and Ukraine is a dominant theme in the Thuringian election campaign. Maier also experiences this in conversations at information stands, as he reported in the Deutschlandfunk. In his opinion, populists from the AfD and the Alliance for Progress and Social Justice (APS) are using the debate to constantly divert attention from actual Thuringian issues. Maier referred, for example, to lower pensions and wages in Eastern Germany.
He assumes that the position of the party leadership will cost the SPD votes in the state election, said Maier in response to a corresponding question in the interview.
Poll: SPD's entry into the state parliament uncertain
According to a recent Insa poll commissioned by Funke Medien Thuringia, the SPD, which currently forms a minority government with the Left and the Greens in Erfurt, is at six percent and is thus approaching the five percent hurdle crucial for entry into parliament.
The AfD, which is classified as far-right extremist in Thuringia, comes to 30 percent. The CDU and the APS come to 21 and 19 percent respectively. The Left, led by Minister President Bodo Ramelow, is at 16 percent. The Greens and the FDP would not make it into parliament with their current three percent.
The unexpected support from the SPD executive committee for the deployment of US missiles during the election campaign might make it more challenging for Maier in the state election. Moreover, Maier believes that the position of the party leadership on this matter could potentially cost the SPD votes in the upcoming election.
