German State That Triggered Political Chaos Reverses Course

(Bloomberg) -- The eastern German state that triggered political chaos last month reversed course, undoing a vote for the state premiership four weeks after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party joined the far right to elect a rogue candidate.

Lawmakers in Thuringia elected Bodo Ramelow of the anti-capitalist Left Party, whose ouster in a Feb. 5 parliamentary ballot shocked Germany’s political establishment. Ramelow, who had governed the state since 2014, was backed by the Social Democrats and the Greens and will lead the rural state in a minority government.

The vote defuses a political drama that sent shockwaves to Berlin and beyond, contributing to the resignation of Merkel’s heir-apparent and a fresh leadership race in her Christian Democratic Union. Merkel, who had been traveling to Africa during the vote, called her party’s alignment with the AfD “unforgivable.”

Ramelow’s election on Wednesday proceeded as it had been meant to a month ago. Lacking an absolute majority, he was installed in the third round of voting with a plurality of ballots. Merkel’s CDU and the AfD either voted no or abstained, while the Free Democrats -- which fielded the rogue candidate -- boycotted the vote.

On Feb. 5, the third ballot took a different course. The FDP’s Thomas Kemmerich was the surprise winner with backing from the CDU and AfD. Under withering pressure from the political establishment, he resigned in a matter of days.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.