As is so often the case, it ended up being a marathon.

After 22 hours of intensive negotiations, the Left, SPD and Greens as well as the CDU reached a result on Thursday morning in Erfurt.

Should this be passed in the state parliament at the beginning of February, of which there is now little doubt, Thuringia would have a budget for the current year.

It would be the first in Germany to be decided by a minority government with opposition participation.

Stephen Locke

Correspondent for Saxony and Thuringia based in Dresden.

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Everyone involved was correspondingly exhausted, but also partly euphoric on Thursday – above all the Union.

"The CDU parliamentary group has forced Red-Red-Green to save," said parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt.

"The volume of the budget is falling and Thuringia is about to change its policy."

"The CDU parliamentary group has set key priorities and put its stamp on the budget."

Left, SPD and Greens, in turn, put their ability to act as a minority coalition in the shop window. It is now the third year in which the minority government is doing politics and shaping the country instead of just administering it, said Left Party leader Steffen Dittes. This budget is further proof of that. Its volume should apply for around 11.9 billion euros, about as much as last year. The state government with Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) had planned well over twelve billion euros. But more than 400 million euros were left by 2021, so that the shrinkage could somehow be coped with, according to the tenor at Red-Red-Green.

A fierce controversy had broken out about the additional 500 million euros in flat-rate savings demanded by the CDU. In the end, the four negotiating partners agreed on a global underspending of 330 million euros. The state government has to save these over the course of the year, but then no longer needs to involve the state parliament. The government factions now want to clarify in a legal opinion whether this is legal given this comparatively large sum. However, according to Dittes, any accusations from the CDU about the forced cuts are already forbidden.

Red-red-green also harshly opposed the Union's interpretation of a change in policy. "We didn't cave in or gave up our own creative freedom," said Dittes. "There were four factions at the table that reached a compromise." SPD faction leader Matthias Hey said the negotiations were on the verge of being broken off several times. Ultimately, however, the prospect of further imposing a stalemate on the state and in particular the municipalities forced a result. All sides would have had to make concessions for this. Red-red-green are missing four votes for a majority in the Erfurt state parliament, which could come from either the CDU parliamentary group or the FDP group. The Greens declared that they would also have liked "serious negotiations with the FDP". But unfortunately it didn't come to that.

The FDP, which only has four parliamentarians after the resignation of a member of parliament and has therefore lost its parliamentary group status, sharply criticized the agreement between the red-red-green and the CDU.

"Red-Red-Green apparently managed to soften the CDU," said group leader Thomas Kemmerich.

The draft is not a big hit, but a rotten compromise and in general: savings are being made in the wrong place, since "ideology-driven programs" such as the state admissions program for refugees and the state work program would continue to be funded.

The Liberals had made flat-rate savings of 500 million euros a condition for their approval.

They announced 57 amendments for the budget deliberations in the state parliament at the beginning of February.