Following events in the parliament of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Tuesday, speculation is rife that lawmakers from the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) helped elect a far-right extremist as parliamentary speaker, in violation not only of prior internal agreements, but also despite the insistence of CDU Chairman, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, that his party would not cooperate with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) anywhere.
In the first session of the parliament in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, following the AfD's election victory on September 6, Tobias Rausch was elected parliamentary speaker — the first time a representative of a far-right party had held such a position since the end of World War II.
Rausch was backed by his own party and the Alliance for Social Justice and Economic Rationality (BSW), formerly known as the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance — as had been expected — but he also received four additional votes by secret ballot. Most observers believe these votes could only have come from right-wing CDU lawmakers.
Leading members of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) were quick to take to the streets in protest in Berlin on Tuesday, marching from the Bundestag through the Brandenburg Gate to nearby Bebelplatz — the very spot where, in 1933, the Nazis burned books by authors they deemed unacceptable. The march concluded with SPD Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius leading the crowd in the German national anthem, while many participants displayed copies of the German Basic Law, a symbol of democracy to stand up for the rule of law and the constitution.
Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) summarized the situation: "Electing far-right extremists to such an office represents a taboo brake. Not only the BSW, but also the CDU must urgently explain how this could have happened." Klingbeil's SPD is, after all, the junior coalition partner in the federal government. The events in Magdeburg thus also cast a shadow over the governing coalition.
It didn't help much that the leader of the CDU parliamentary group, Thorsten Frei, was careful in his wording: "It's a secret ballot, so of course, in principle, anybody is suspect." But he also added: "The fact that this happened is, in my view, extremely troubling and cause for concern."
The result of the first election in the new state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt thus offers only a glimpse of the fierce debates to come on how to deal with the AfD. The far-right party won 44% of the vote after having campaigned on extremely tough immigration policies, climate change denial and calls for the near-total abolition of public broadcasting.
Despite its election victory, the AfD does not have a parliamentary majority of its own. In the small eastern state, the regional branch of the party has been classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as "confirmed right-wing extremist."
So once again, the debate about the "firewall" returns. The term refers to the stance taken by democratic parties of ruling out any form of cooperation with the AfD. At the city and municipal levels, this approach has long since ceased to work.
Many political analysts have pointed out that the "firewall" has not benefited the CDU, but cooperating with the AfD is also seen as a slippery slope. Georg Maier, the SPD Interior Minister of the state of Thuringia, agrees: "If the CDU continues down this path, it will contribute to its own downfall. The firewall does serve a purpose."
BSW co-leader Fabio De Masi told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper: "We have to pull the AfD out from behind the firewall. Until now, it hasn't had to prove anything and has been able to conceal its internal contradictions. I don't want the AfD to continue growing behind the firewall."
The BSW, a party founded by former Left Party politician Sahra Wagenknecht that has retained some left-wing positions while also aligning itself with the AfD on social issues, paved the way for Rausch's election as parliamentary speaker when it announced that it would vote for him.
The BSW barely managed to cross the 5% threshold for representation in the Saxony-Anhalt parliament. How closely its five MPs want to work with the AfD in the future remains to be seen.
AfD caucus leader Oliver Kirchner recently expressed criticism of BSW co-leaders De Masi and Mohamed Ali, who both have an immigrant background: "Am I now supposed to spend five years in politics with people who are under the leadership of Mohamed Ali and this half-Italian guy who says, 'They're all Nazis'?" Kirchner told the right-wing magazine Compact earlier this month.
Up until now, support from the BSW has been seen as the AfD's only real chance of coming to power in Saxony-Anhalt. The other parties — the CDU, the SPD, the Greens, and the Left Party — continue to categorically rule out any cooperation with the AfD. Whether that will remain the case in the coming weeks is now the big question.
