CDU and FDP may abstain or be absent from vote over choice between far right and far left

Conservatives and liberals in the eastern German state of Thuringia are preparing to abstain from or boycott the election for a new premier after the decision by a far-right populist party to put up its most controversial figurehead as a candidate.

Björn Höcke announced his candidacy for Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) less than an hour before the closing deadline on Monday and will go head to head with Bodo Ramelow, of the far-left Die Linke, in the ballot on Wednesday night.

Members of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the pro-business Free Democratic party (FDP) have said they will abstain because they cannot vote for an extreme candidate on either the left or the right.

Last month centre-right politicians in Thuringia used votes from the AfD to oust Ramelow as premier. That resulted in the resignation of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was Merkel’s successor as CDU general secretary.

A suspected case of coronavirus could yet derail Wednesday’s vote. A member of the CDU who sits in the Thuringia parliament is being tested for the virus. If his results come back positive, officials will have little choice but to postpone.

“If the suspicions [of coronavirus] are confirmed, the vote for a new premier planned for this Wednesday will have to be postponed,” said the parliamentary president, Birgit Keller.

The CDU MP had reportedly been on a skiing trip with a large group in South Tyrol. He was in parliament on Monday, meaning that if he tests positive then the rest of the parliament will also have to be tested, as well as potentially their friends and relatives.

The FDP, whose candidate Thomas Kemmerich was elected premier last month after receiving votes from the AfD and CDU but then quit after an outcry, said it was left with no choice but to boycott the election, whenever it goes ahead.

“We only have a choice between Ramelow, Höcke and to abstain,” said a party spokesman, Thomas Philipp Reiter. “We reject both candidates and also don’t wish to abstain. In which case our only remaining possibility is to not being physically present at the election.”

Christian Lindner, the head of the FDP, called the situation “extraordinary” and said under the circumstances it was “understandable that the FDP wants to exclude any suspicion that it helped support the AfD”, adding that he did not underestimate the AfD’s capacity to try to undermine the election.

The CDU parliamentary group has said it will not boycott the vote, despite calls to do so from across the party, including from its youth wing, the Young Union (JU). But some of its members hinted they may abstain.

Tilman Kuban, the head of the JU, told the newspaper group Funke: “We are resolved to not work together with the AfD or Die Linke, whether directly or indirectly, which is why the CDU cannot possibly help a premier from Die Linke or the AfD into power and should therefore leave the plenary for the vote.”

Opponents of Höcke say he stands for the Flügel or far-right wing of the party. Last September a court ruled that he could legally be referred to as fascist, saying “such a declaration rests on verifiable fact”.

Ramelow’s opponents describe him as a defender of the communist East German regime, of which Thuringia was a part, and say this makes him unelectable.

According to the rules of the vote, a majority is needed for a candidate to win. Ramelow’s desired coalition of Die Linke, Social Democrats and the Greens would give him only 42 seats, four short of a majority, making him dependent on votes from either the CDU or FDP.