Erfurt (dpa/th) - Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow wants to decide in the next few days whether he will again run as the top candidate of the left in the next state elections. The 66-year-old said on Tuesday in Erfurt that he was sticking to his schedule to clarify this after the end of his Federal Council presidency. The left-wing politician, who has been head of a red-red-green government in Thuringia since 2014, will officially hand over the chair of the state chamber to Hamburg at the end of October.
Since his re-election as prime minister in 2020, Ramelow has left open whether he will run for office in the next regular state elections in 2024. His red-red-green coalition does not have a majority in the state parliament - it is missing four votes.
In the Thuringian left, many rely on Ramelow as a renewed top candidate. Many of his comrades are of the opinion that thanks to his personality, the Thuringian Left can at least partially counteract the nationwide downward trend of the party. In current polls, the Thuringian left is around 23 percent, in the last state election it was just over 30 percent.
