AfD politician Hans-Thomas Tillschneider has been elected as state parliament vice president. He received 44 yes votes. 38 MPs voted against. There were no abstentions. Tillschneider, who is considered an AfD right-winger, has been sitting for the AfD in the state parliament since 2016, and the AfD's program for a possible takeover of government in Saxony-Anhalt is largely based on him.
State Parliament President Tobias Rausch continues the meeting. The focus now is on changing the rules of procedure. The AfD wants to reverse a regulation that was only passed in April, according to which the parliamentary group of the state parliament president is not allowed to name a candidate for one of the vice-presidential positions. According to the current rules of procedure, the AfD could not nominate any other candidate besides Rausch. If the state parliament returns to the previous rule, the parliamentary group could also send Hans-Thomas Tillschneider into the running for a vice-presidential position. In the last electoral period, the CDU had both the state parliament president and a vice president. All groups agreed that there should continue to be three vice presidents.
After the election of the AfD politician Rausch as President of the State Parliament, Green Party leader Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz spoke in the plenary session. After the AfD takes over government, freedom and human dignity will be decisively defended in the federal state. "We will object when people are disparaged because of their origin, their faith or their way of life. We will intervene if the rights of minorities and the opposition are to be curtailed, if Saxony-Anhalt is to become their prey," she said. Sziborra-Seidlitz said her party would defend the independence of science, culture and the media. “Where this does not happen, we will exhaust the parliamentary and legal options,” she said.
With the election of a member of a firmly right-wing extremist and anti-constitutional party as President of the state parliament, a “line” had been crossed, she said. “We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated and we will not get used to it if the rights here or those of the people in the country are to be curtailed.”
After his election as state parliament president, AfD politician Tobias Rausch gives his first speech. He stands with great gratitude and respect for this office and thanks the previous President of the State Parliament. He wanted to say right at the beginning: "I will hold this office as President of the entire state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt. I would like to live up to this claim."
In the past, he emphasized, he had experienced how controversial parliamentary rules were. But: For him it is not about settling accounts with the past. "Parliamentary rules must not be made dependent on who they benefit and who they harm. Rules must remain in place even when political majorities change." He wanted a state parliament in which arguments were passionate but treated fairly and respectfully.
For the first time in Germany, an AfD politician, MP Tobias Rausch in Saxony-Anhalt, has been elected president of the state parliament. The 35-year-old received 48 votes and thus the necessary majority. 29 MPs voted no. There were five abstentions. The AfD and BSW together have 44 votes in the state parliament.
Senior president Eva von Angern explains the procedure. The 82 MPs present are now called individually and cast their votes in the voting booth. The election is secret. Tobias Rausch from the AfD will be elected if he receives the required majority.
AfD election winner Ulrich Siegmund appeared at the first meeting with a cup with the imprint “Left Tears”. In an Instagram video that morning he said, referring to what is probably the first AfD state parliament president: “The left is over.”
The AfD would like to change the rules of procedure to enable an AfD vice president in the state parliament. The AfD parliamentary group would like to discuss this in plenary. There is now a debate about this. The CDU wants to discuss this in the Council of Elders after the election of the state parliament president. After a lengthy debate, the AfD finally agreed to this procedure.
