A best-selling author, a former boxing world champion and a CDU politician are supporting Brandenburg’s SPD Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke in the election campaign. The “We for Woidke” initiative also includes Olympic champion Laura Lindemann, Olympic champion Sebastian Brendel and former head of government Matthias Platzeck, the SPD Brandenburg announced.
On September 22, a new state parliament will be elected in Brandenburg. In the most recent Insa poll from August, the SPD was at 20 percent, behind the AfD with 24 percent and just ahead of the CDU with 19 percent. Woidke has tied his political future to an election victory for his SPD. He is hoping for success despite poor poll ratings for the federal SPD.
According to the SPD, the writer Juli Zeh, who is an honorary constitutional judge in Brandenburg and also lives there, is campaigning for the long-standing head of government: “Dietmar Woidke is the best man for the country – give him your vote so that he can continue!”
Boxer Henry Maske, who was born in Treuenbrietzen in Brandenburg, warns against the AfD, which the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies as a suspected right-wing extremist case and which Woidke is fighting against: “One should think very carefully about whether to vote for a party like the AfD out of protest, which destroys cohesion and sows fear.” Triathlete Laura Lindemann warns: “We must avoid populism and division.”
The support of the former CDU Federal Minister for Family Affairs and President of the Bundestag Rita Süssmuth, who also visited Woidke last Friday at an SPD election campaign event, is unusual. “I support the democratic parties in the state of Brandenburg, especially Prime Minister Dr. Dietmar Woidke,” she explains. “From my many years of working with him, I know that he stands for a policy that puts people at the center and continues to move Brandenburg forward.”
The democratic parties must work together, the 87-year-old told the German Press Agency. When asked whether CDU leader Friedrich Merz knew that she supported the SPD politician, she said last Friday: “No.”
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