The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), though now torn by internal jostling, is still Germany’s strongest party. But in recent weeks, faced by the lure of the far, far-rightist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) and outweighed locally by the often-despised, ostracized little party the LINKE (Left), the CDU has been caught in a quandary of its own making.

Five years ago, the LINKE in Thuringia upset or enraged nearly everyone by achieving a three-party coalition headed by its own first and only German minister-president, Bodo Ramelow. Since last October it seemed very possible that it might renew it for another five years. For the CDU and its secular, equally right-wing little partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), that simply had to be prevented by any and all means, even the dirtiest.

The background has been tense and terrible. As in the U.S., last year was marked by bloody massacres. In October a man tried to shoot his way into a synagogue in Halle. Failing to break in, he killed two customers in a nearby döner kebab shop.

Last week in Hanau, near Frankfurt, a German gun-sport enthusiast fired blindly into a café where Muslim men were quietly smoking their hookahs, then shot others at a second shisha cafe before killing his mother and himself at his home. Ten deaths within an hour!

The continuing political chaos in Thuringia spotlights these contradictions dramatically. Bodo Ramelow had become LINKE minister-president because the local Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens were willing to join him as junior partners. After last October’s election, they were willing to try it again but while the LINKE got more votes than ever, they came out weaker – and their previous tiny one-seat majority was now out of reach, short by the votes of four deputies. No winning combination among the six different parties seemed possible, it was a stalemate! After months of dickering, an agreement finally came into view. If the Christian Democrats, in third place, would neither vote for nor against a Ramelow government but simply abstain, and then tolerate it on mutually-agreed issues, then at least a shaky conclusion of the month-long Purgatory might be possible.

Then came the moment of horror! Back into Inferno! On February 5, when the legislature voted, the Christian Democrats (CDU) did not abstain as expected but joined instead with the fascistic AfD to elect the almost unknown leader of the little secular pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), which had barely managed to get seated at all. Thus, the CDU (and the FDP) broke all pledges never to cooperate with the AfD. As so frequently in history, the “upright center” chose fascists over leftists, even though Bodo Ramelow’s team was composed of the mildest, least militant members of the LINKE, and he himself was a pious West German who could not possibly be stamped with the barbed-wire-Stasi-Berlin-Wall label.

What followed was hardly short of seismic! That vote by the Thuringian “Christians” had exposed in nasty nakedness how empty their self-righteous “neither left nor right” stand had been, a cover-up for the longings of many in the CDU to snuggle up to the far right and wage far sharper attacks in both domestic and foreign affairs. Since their new chairwoman recently threw in the towel, their party is currently caught up in a bitter struggle to seize her emptying party chair, with its near certain coronation as chancellor as soon as the long reign of the careful, relatively moderate Angela Merkel finally ends in 2021. But the pledge to repudiate any connection with the AfD was always marked indelible by all contenders, whether sincerely or not. And now this sudden U-turn in Thuringia, this crummy secret deal with the AfD!

There was total confusion! Some sent congratulations on this victory over the bloody red Ramelow regime. That old wheelchair-bound war-horse Wolfgang Schaeuble stayed stubborn: “The struggle against Communism is integral to the CDU… Naturally, Bodo Ramelow is not a Communist, he was a union leader in (West German) Hesse…But that doesn’t alter the fact that the LINKE wants to leave NATO, has an unclear position on the European Union and a foreign program which includes greater consideration for Russia.” ”No Deals with Nazis!”

But such applause was quickly stifled by other CDU and FDP leaders who rapidly reined it in – most notably Merkel, then visiting South Africa, who truly seemed shocked and angered. A main reason for the swift switch was certainly the immediate reaction by thousands of angry German citizens, gathering in spontaneous demonstrations all over Germany and insisting: ”No Deals with Nazis!”

But in Thuringia, now a center of nation-wide attention, the Gordian knot still needed cutting. But while the CDU could no longer show even the least affinity with the AfD, its decision barring any path to a Ramelow re-election still hung over its stalemated knights, bishops and pawns. A female former minister-president, more flexible than most CDU leaders, offered to head a brief, neutral care-taker government of experts until a new election could be held. Ramelow said “OK!” But the central CDU watchdogs kept insisting: “Reject all cooperation with the left! Get rid of the LINKE!” To increase the tension, the polls in Thuringia showed slight gains for the Greens, the SPD, also for the AfD – but the most damaging results for the CDU – now down to 14% – while the LINKE soared to poll results it had never dreamed of anywhere in Germany – now at an amazing 40%. What an awful beating the CDU would take in an election!

The debates stayed heated, the rock and a hard place dilemma seemed insurmountable. A few local, less hard-bitten CDU leaders called for a relaxation of the strict anti-left rule, at least in exceptional Thuringia. Perhaps Ramelow secretly won over a few of them; at the coming legislature session on March 4th, when he will stand for election again, the wily politician claims he has a “stability mechanism” which will enable him to bridge the gap, set up a minority government with the CDU in “constructive opposition” and put off new elections until April 2021. Another key motivation; with a new election put off at least until then, the 21 CDU legislators will be sure of staying in office, receiving good salaries and allowances for at least another thirteen months.

A major result of all this has been an increased polarization in the whole country, with a surprisingly large outcry against racists and fascists. This was most evident Sunday in the city-state election in Hamburg, Germany’s second-biggest metropolis far off to the north. Not unexpectedly, the Social Democrats retained the top position they have almost always enjoyed there, with less votes than five years ago but more than sufficient and a balm after the savagely sagging national poll figures in recent years. The Greens gained the most, coming in a strong second, and will continue as junior partners in governing the huge port city. The sensation was the battering suffered by the CDU, the sharp losses by the AfD, which barely managed to take the hurdle with only 5,3% and stay in the city-state council, and the disaster for the Free Democrats, who failed to take that 5% hurdle, losing miserably – a merited punishment for their betrayal to the AfD.

The right-wing menace, its violence and threat of a genuine fascist take-over, is far from ceasing with the happy ending of a Grimm fairy-tale. Many recall that it was Thuringia where the Nazis gained their first foothold in 1930; the AfD leader here today, Bjorn Hoecke, is the most vicious and dangerous man in Germany, and he has proved that he is clever. But a good half of the citizens in Germany’s “green lung” proved that they were on the alert.

In West German Hamburg the improvement for the LINKE was far more modest than in Thuringia; they got 9.1% of the vote. But it was an improvement, not another downturn, and its membership is eager to keep up its fight to put a ceiling on rent rates. This goal, a five-year ceiling on most apartment rents, has just been achieved in Berlin, won by the same coalition as in Thuringia, LINKE, SPD and Greens, though with the LINKE here a strong junior partner (and in charge of housing affairs). Thus, there was good news for this party in Thuringia, Hamburg and in Berlin.(IPA Service)