BERLIN: The reform communist Left party took power in a German state on Friday for the first time since reunification, ending a quarter century of conservative rule in Thuringia and raising the chance of a left-wing threat to Angela Merkel in the next federal vote.

The Left, which traces its roots to the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that once ruled East Germany and built the Berlin Wall, will run the state southwest of Berlin with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens in a three-way coalition.

Thuringia voted in September in state elections which produced a close result, leading to protracted negotiations involving four parties. Eventually the three left-leaning parties agreed on a coalition and on Friday the state assembly elected the Left party’s Bodo Ramelow, a 58-year-old trade unionist from West Germany, as Thuringia’s state premier.

It is the first time these three parties have ruled together in one of Germany’s 16 states. If they succeed in Thuringia, they could decide to band together in the next national election in 2017 in an attempt to defeat the chancellor’s conservatives.

In the past, the center-left SPD, which rules with Merkel in a right-left federal “grand coalition,” refused to cooperate with the Left at the national level.

Ramelow, who is often seen with his pet terrier Attila, was confirmed in a second round vote in the assembly in the state capital of Erfurt, after falling just shy of a majority in the first round.

“We need reconciliation instead of division,” he said in an emotional speech to the 91-seat assembly.

Ramelow is an unabashed backer of socialism and campaigned for September’s election with a bright red bust of Karl Marx at his side.