Overview
- On Friday a wave of departures left the Thuringian BSW's Landtag group down from 15 members to about 12 deputies and reduced the party membership in the chamber to just two MPs.
- The BSW's state executive announced it will resign and a planned state party congress was canceled, signaling a collapse of the branch's leadership.
- Leaving MPs said their exits were driven by interference from the federal BSW leadership around Sahra Wagenknecht and by concerns about insufficient distance from the AfD, and the federal leadership had asked the state branch to leave the coalition after Voigt's plagiarism affair.
- Despite the turmoil Minister-President Mario Voigt and SPD partners said the CDU–BSW–SPD coalition will continue to govern stably and that ministers who left the party will keep carrying out their duties.
- Departing deputies plan to form a new parliamentary group and the formal fate of the BSW faction — which will determine committee seats and voting math in a narrowly balanced Landtag — is set to be decided next week, a development that could affect regional election dynamics.