In Thuringia, the director of a security company is running twice in local elections: for the CDU and for the AfD. The Left and Greens demand consequences.
Parties for the elections in Thuringia: many pins to choose from Photo: image
HAMBURG taz | One man, two parties: in the local elections on May 26 in Thuringia, Frank Böwe is running for re-election to the Ruhla municipal council and the Wartburg district council. In Ruhla, the director of a major security company ranks 10th on the CDU list, and he is a candidate for the district council in 22nd place on the AfD list. Legally possible, politically questionable, that’s what the Thuringian co-chairman of the left, Ulrike Grosse-Röthig, calls it. She demands that CDU state leader and prime ministerial candidate Mario Voigt “provide immediate clarity”.
For months, both political scientists of various stripes and politicians from democratic parties have feared that the CDU in Thuringia could further break down the already vulnerable firewall against the AfD. After the AfD state chairman Björn Höcke recently initially was convicted of using an SA sloganVoigt explained that Höcke should not have any political responsibility in the Free State. “But if Voigt does nothing now, his recent statements are just hot air,” said Grosse-Röthig, who is running for the left in the state elections in September.
Madeleine Henfling also has these concerns. The Green Party’s top candidate says: “At a local level, we really have to ask ourselves where the CDU is setting up a firewall against the AfD.” AfD member of the Bundestag with relevant functions Established connections for the district council elections in Greiz.
The concerns and warnings – also due to votes in the Erfurt state parliament – are no coincidence. In Thuringia, Thomas Kemmerich, member of the FDP state parliament, was prime minister of the Free State for a few days in 2020 with votes from the CDU, AfD and his party. In 2023, these three parties in the state parliament worked together to reduce the transfer tax. This has been added joint vote on the topics of gender and wind energy.
Local politician Frank Böwe is not a nobody in Thuringia. On its website, his security company, headquartered in Schmalkalden, lists large and small companies, various media and the local CDU as references.
His political positioning has also been known for a long time. The CDU should have provided clarity in 2021, says state MP Katharina König-Preuss (left). She noticed almost three years ago that Böwe was already in the municipal council for the CDU and in the district council for the AfD. On the website of the city of Ruhla, the businessman is listed as a member of the CDU faction guided, The district’s ties to the AfD faction are noted. The party did not answer the Taz’s question about why the state CDU tolerated the double game. A spokesperson simply said: “We are aware of the matter and are currently reviewing it internally in the first instance.”
The Union and the AfD appear to have so far overlooked the right-wing extremist involvement of their elected official. According to König-Preuss, Böwe’s name appeared in the state parliament’s investigative committee into the National Socialist underground – in the context of connections between right-wing extremists and organized crime surrounding the Hells Angels.
Moreover, according to the evidence available to the taz, a right-wing extremist was said to have worked in Böwe’s company, which has existed since 1995. Like King Preuss in a message explains that the company itself supervised right-wing extremist activities, such as a concert by the band Category C in question, and that Böwe was also partly responsible for a right-wing trendy store.
This vita does not seem to harm either his business career or his involvement in local politics. A taz question to Böwe on Friday remained unanswered.