Without a consensus, the party might decide to bring in a respected elder, such as Bernhard Vogel, the premier of Thuringia, for the interim.

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Popular items include gherkins from the Spree forest and sausages from Thuringia, as well as Rot-Weiss toothpaste, Spee washing powder and chicken-shaped plastic egg cups in various colours.

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The far-right trio were long known to Thuringia's intelligence agency.

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So far the SPD has entered coalitions with the (post-)Communists only at the regional level, an experiment that, following Sunday's elections, will probably be replicated also in Thuringia and Saarland.

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History has gone over Thuringia from top to bottom.

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Indeed, the population in the state of Thuringia, which was part of former East Germany, is forecast to plunge more than 40% to 1.3 million residents by 2060, according to government statistics.

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After the decision was announced, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle called GM's behaviour "totally unacceptable", while Christine Lieberknecht, the premier of Thuringia state, which hosts an Opel plant, called the decision a "low blow".

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There are home-grown successes, too witness the transformation of a doddery East German combine, Carl Zeiss of Jena, in Thuringia, into the technology group Jenoptik, with world sales of DM2.6 billion and a first public share issue last month that was one of the hits of the season.

ECONOMIST: Germany��s east