First Ramelow cabinet

The first Ramelow cabinet was the state government of Thuringia between 2014 and 2020, sworn in on 5 December 2014 after Bodo Ramelow was elected as Minister-President by the members of the Landtag of Thuringia. It was the 7th Cabinet of Thuringia.

First Cabinet of Bodo Ramelow Cabinet Ramelow I
8th Cabinet of Thuringia
2014–2020
Bodo Ramelow in June 2016
Date formed	5 December 2014
Date dissolved	5 February 2020
People and organisations
Minister-President	Bodo Ramelow
Deputy Minister-President	Heike Taubert Anja Siegesmund
No. of ministers	9
Member parties	The Left Social Democratic Party Alliance 90/The Greens
Status in legislature	Coalition government 46 / 91
Opposition parties	Christian Democratic Union Alternative for Germany
History
Election	2014 Thuringian state election
Legislature term	6th Landtag of Thuringia
Predecessor	Lieberknecht
Successor	Kemmerich[a]

It was formed after the 2014 Thuringian state election by The Left (LINKE), the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and Alliance 90/The Greens (GRÜNE). Excluding the Minister-President, the cabinet comprised nine ministers. Four were members of The Left, three were members of the SPD, and two were members of the Greens.

The first Ramelow cabinet left office on 5 February 2020 after Thomas Kemmerich was elected Minister-President.

Formation

See also: 2014 Thuringian state election

The previous cabinet was a coalition government CDU and SPD led by Minister-President Christine Lieberknecht.

The state election took place on 14 September, and resulted in small gains for the CDU and a substantial decline for the SPD. The Left and Greens remained steady on 28% and 6% respectively, while the AfD debuted at 11%. Overall, the incumbent coalition retained a slim majority of one seat.

The SPD's losses prompted the party to consider changing course and defecting from the outgoing government. A left-wing coalition of The Left, SPD, and Greens also held a one-seat majority.^[1] After holding exploratory talks with the other parties, they SPD carried out a postal ballot of their membership to gauge support for a coalition with The Left and Greens. The results were announced on 4 November, with 69.9% voting in favour. Turnout among the party's 4,300 members was 77.5%.^[2] The three parties thus entered into negotiations. They presented their coalition agreement on 19 November.^[3]

Bodo Ramelow was elected Minister-President by the Landtag on 6 December after two rounds of voting. In the first ballot, he received 45 votes in favour to 44 against, one short of the required majority. In the second ballot, he was elected with 46 votes in favour to 43 against. In both rounds, there was one abstention and one invalid vote.^[4]

Minister-President election
Ballot →		4 March 2020
Required majority →		46 out of 91 N	46 out of 91Y
	Bodo Ramelow	45 / 91	46 / 91
	Against	44 / 91	43 / 91
	Abstentions	1 / 91	1 / 91

Composition

The composition of the cabinet at the time of its dissolution was as follows:

Portfolio	Senator		Party		Took office	Left office	State secretaries
Minister-President		Bodo Ramelow born (1956-02-19)19 February 1956		LINKE	5 December 2014	5 February 2020
First Deputy Minister-President Minister for Finance		Heike Taubert born (1958-11-14)14 November 1958		SPD	5 December 2014	5 February 2020	Hartmut Schubert
Second Deputy Minister-President Minister for Environment, Energy, and Nature Protection		Anja Siegesmund born (1977-01-16)16 January 1977		GRÜNE	5 December 2014	5 February 2020	Olaf Möller
Minister for Culture, Federal and European Affairs and Chief of the State Chancellery		Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff born (1976-02-17)17 February 1976		LINKE	5 December 2014	5 February 2020	Malte Krückels (Media, Representative to the Federal Government) Babette Winter (Culture and Europe)
Minister for Infrastructure and Agriculture (acting)					26 November 2019	5 February 2020	Klaus Sühl
Minister for Interior and Communities		Holger Poppenhäger born (1957-04-03)3 April 1957		SPD	5 December 2014	30 August 2017	Udo Götze
		Georg Maier born (1967-04-25)25 April 1967		SPD	30 August 2017	5 February 2020	Udo Götze Uwe Höhn
Minister for Education, Youth and Sport		Birgit Klaubert born (1954-09-28)28 September 1954		LINKE	5 December 2014	17 August 2017	Gabi Ohler
		Helmut Holter born (1953-05-22)22 May 1953		LINKE	17 August 2017	5 February 2020	Gabi Ohler
Minister for Migration, Justice and Consumer Protection		Dieter Lauinger born (1962-12-05)5 December 1962		GRÜNE	5 December 2014	5 February 2020	Sebastian von Ammon
Minister for Economics, Science and Digital Society		Wolfgang Tiefensee born (1955-01-04)4 January 1955		SPD	5 December 2014	5 February 2020	Markus Hoppe (Science) Valentina Kerst (Economic Policy, Economic Development, Tourism and Digital Society)
Minister for Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Women and Family		Heike Werner born (1969-05-30)30 May 1969		LINKE	5 December 2014	5 February 2020	Ines Feierabend
Minister for Infrastructure and Agriculture		Birgit Keller born (1959-01-28) 28 January 1959 (age 65)		LINKE	5 December 2014	26 November 2019	Klaus Sühl

References

1. "The CDU considers an Afghanistan coalition". Der Spiegel (in German). 15 September 2014.
2. "SPD base in Thuringia votes for red-red-green". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 4 November 2014.
3. "Left, SPD and Greens agree on coalition pact". Die Zeit (in German). 19 November 2014.
4. "Germany gets first socialist state governor since reunification". The Guardian. 6 December 2014.

Notes

1. Thomas Kemmerich did not appoint any ministers during his short time in office and the ministries were led by the state secretaries of the previous government; his government was a one-person cabinet.

External links

• "Ramelow introduces the red-red-green cabinet". Die Zeit (in German). 5 December 2014.