According to former Hamburg mayor Ole von Beust (CDU), a CDU coalition with the AfD after the eastern state elections would damage the party badly. “If in the eastern German states after the elections someone from the CDU were to come up with the idea of coalitions with the AfD, that would tear the place apart,” the gay politician told Spiegel. He estimates that at least 30 percent of CDU members would leave.
Beust himself governed Hamburg between 2001 and 2003 in coalition with right-wing populists. The former party Rechtsstaatlicher Offensive led by Ronald Schill is difficult to compare with today’s AfD, Beust said: They were not Nazis. But “with the AfD there must be no coalitions, no agreements, not even arrangements.” It’s more likely that CDU members in the East would tolerate a coalition with The Left: “gritted teeth, yes. All democratic parties, including the CDU, must go to the edge of what is bearable for them to prevent the AfD.”
In a memorable press conference in August 2003, Beust fired Schill as interior minister. Schill had threatened to reveal an alleged homosexual relationship between him and Justice Minister Roger Kusch (CDU). Beust said the claim was false and the threat outrageous, noting that he had never publicly spoken about his sexuality before. “I yelled at him to go to hell,” Beust recalled to Die Zeit (TheColu.mn reported).
This year, five state elections are on the docket in Germany, including September 6 in Saxony-Anhalt and September 20 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) and Berlin. In Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, elections will be held again only in 2029.
