The Left has signaled it could support a Christian Democratic Union premier in Saxony-Anhalt after the state's 6 September parliamentary election, a move aimed at preventing the Alternative for Germany from taking power. Party leader Luigi Pantisano told ZDF his party has demonstrated it can assume governing responsibility, even as polls show the AfD leading the CDU by a wide margin with The Left in third place. Incumbent CDU premier Sven Schulze may need Left party votes to be re-elected, though his party has so far ruled out any cooperation with either The Left or the AfD.
Former Thuringia premier Bodo Ramelow urged cross-party talks to avert harm to the state, saying those who want to protect Saxony-Anhalt must be willing to talk across party lines. Ramelow criticized the CDU for dithering instead of identifying areas for joint work, pointing to years of Left-CDU cooperation in Thuringia as a model. Greens leader Felix Banaszak echoed the call, saying democrats must work together in the current situation.
Ramelow also distanced himself from Left co-leader Ines Schwerdtner's remarks on expropriating housing companies as a coalition condition in Berlin, calling them unhelpful.