Er ist DER Landes-Rebell der FDP: Thomas Kemmerich, für 28-Tage mit den Stimmen der AfD zum Ministerpräsidenten von Thüringen gewählt und dann auf Druck von Kanzlerin Merkel wieder abgetreten. Im nächsten Jahr ist er wieder Spitzenkandidat – seine Bundespartei versagt ihm die finanzielle Unterstützung. Kemmerich sagt ganz offen: In der Ampel regiert die FDP am Volk vorbei. Und er attackiert den Vizekanzler: „Für Herrn Habeck zählt nur das Klima. Die Leute haben den Glauben daran verloren, dass das Wichtigste die Klimarettung ist. Das Wichtigste ist, erst mal Deutschland wieder auf Vordermann zu bringen.“
Do you know this man?
You will tell me in a moment.
Reinhold Meyer.
First Prime Minister of the FDP in Baden-Württemberg, 1949-53.
And he was in office for more than 28 days.
I have long said that you would have been the only Prime Minister of the FDP,
but you had another predecessor in the Bundesdeutsche Nachkriegsgeschichte.
Would you run for MP again?
I don't think the situation we saw on February 5, 2020 will repeat itself.
That was due to the 19th election night.
And I wanted to run as a candidate,
so that not only my eyes are on the left and right extreme of the election.
And then the election went the way we all interpreted it and experienced,
because in the end I had one more vote than Ramelow, who is now in office.
I don't think the constellation will come.
Objectively, the one who runs for MP, who leads an alliance,
but still represents the largest faction, will run.
If in the end it turns out that the FDP represents the largest faction,
I don't want to rule it out, but we both know that the probability is significantly less than 1.
Yes, but that's enough for the agency report.
Kemmerich does not rule out a new candidate.
We can see here again the picture of the left-wing party leader,
who threw flowers at you.
These were already dramatic scenes.
Did Christian Lindner actually know in advance that you would run?
That I would run, yes.
And did he comment on that somehow?
He commented that this is the decision of the Thünger FDP.
And that was then no longer discussed.
In retrospect, it actually sounded like he was rather at a distance.
But well.
I informed him two or three days before the discussion came to a point.
And he always said, you decide that.
We cannot judge that from the outside.
Of course, there were also insulting words, no question.
But I was here in Berlin on the day before the election, on February 4th,
and discussed the next day with colleagues of his.
And when I was asked,
do you seriously believe you have a chance tomorrow,
I was almost laughed at.
Where I said, actually no, but 5% is also a chance.
But that was the assessment.
Half an hour after the election result,
the announcement of the election result, everyone was smarter.
I like to repeat it.
Above all, what was given to criticism and assessment about this election day.
But the answer to an election that you hold for politically different reasons
is a constructive vote of distrust or the like.
And no flower bouquet, no call from South Africa,
no thousands of people in front of my private home
or in other offices of the FDP nationwide.
From north to south and west to east.
And these are the questions that have initiated this.
And I know from many people who say,
this day or the handling of your election, Mr. Kemmerich,
has left me with a great feeling of disturbance in dealing with democracy.
How did you pursue the fact that the Chancellor of South Africa
spoke up and demanded the reversal of the election in a certain way?
It is not constitutively foreseen
that the Chancellor's election in the countries will be reversed.
I experienced it, as we all do, from the press, radio and television.
And when I first heard about it, I didn't know the date.
Because it sounded, okay, I don't think the result in Thuringia is good.
But that they took this extent, especially in the reactions,
as I said, in front of my home, in front of the institutions,
from the free state and the pressure.
Colleagues wrote it down, where the colleagues of the SPD,
the Chancellor, threatened to bring Kemmerich to trial.
Colleague Alexander wrote it down.
That was unique.
And in the end I said, okay, politically it was not feasible.
I immediately after the election, with the SPD,
above all tried to speak and also the Greens.
They rejected abruptly, we don't talk to them, with the CDU.
In Thuringia there were initial talks.
They were then ended by the alleged pressure from Berlin.
In other words, in the evening, on the night of the election day,
we were standing there politically alone.
And my family and my person under extremely personal pressure
from the outside, from the street.
In this respect, the office was neither politically viable
nor personally sustainable.
The whole conversation about how Thomas Kemmerich
experienced his time as Prime Minister in Thuringia
and the intervention of the Chancellor,
you can find on www.news.de.
Just take a look.
It's worth every minute.
