The war in Ukraine has dominated the political discussion ahead of three east German state elections in September. Both far-left and far-right parties are demanding negotiations with Russia and the halting of weapons deliveries to Ukraine. Can they affect Germany's foreign policies?
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00:00Foreign politics, including the war in Ukraine, have been dominating the political discussion
00:05ahead of three East German state elections in September.
00:08Both far-left and far-right parties are demanding negotiations with Russia and the halting of
00:14weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
00:16Political scientist Dr. Carsten Koschmieder says not directly.
00:20The three federal states have no direct influence on the foreign policy or the federal government.
00:25The three states are still a small minority in the federal council, for example, but the
00:34problem is that the other parties see what is happening.
00:38They see that BSW and AfD get a lot of votes, in East Germany the topic of war is very important,
00:45the East Germans are much more skeptical about the sanctions against Russia, about the help
00:50of Ukraine.
00:51And what is happening now is that, for example, the Saxon prime minister, who belongs to the
00:56CDU and who is a influential CDU politician in the CDU's federal council, has been saying
01:01for weeks, for months, we have to get along with Russia, we have to buy Russian gas again,
01:06we have to drop Ukraine, we are not allowed to give Ukraine anything, we should throw out
01:11Ukrainian refugees, and so on.
01:13If we now see, for example, a very strong election result for the AfD in the three federal
01:22states, then the democratic parties will say, okay, what is the reason and what do we have
01:29to change?
01:30And then some will certainly come up with, oh, the AfD is against the EU and against the
01:36EU in the current state, so we have to do something against the EU.
01:43Neither the far-right party Alternative for Germany nor the far-left party Saar-Wagenknecht
01:53Alliance can govern alone, as both parties are expected to draw well below the required
01:5950% of votes needed to form an absolute majority government.
02:04However, if both parties together manage to win more than 50%, then it would be impossible
02:11to form a government without them, at which point either party could start making strong
02:16demands at the negotiation table, demands that are likely to include the halting of
02:23weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
02:26Liv Stroud in Berlin for Euronews.