Hessian CDU leader Boris Rhein supports AfD access to committee chairmanship in the Bundestag

According to the Hessian CDU leader and Prime Minister Boris Rhein, the CDU should support the election of AfD candidates as chairmen of Bundestag committees. “The party is elected, and that’s how you should treat it,” Rhein told Stern in an interview.

In his opinion, "for example, the AfD should be able to take over committee chairs in the Bundestag - as is usual in the state parliament of Hesse and other states," said the CDU state chairman. "It's important to me: We clearly differentiate ourselves from the AfD, but we don't exclude the party. This must also apply to parliamentary work."

AfD failed to gain the necessary majorities in the Bundestag

Like other factions in the Bundestag, the AfD has the right to propose the chair of several specialist committees. However, the candidates it put forward did not receive the votes of MPs from other parties in the respective elections and therefore failed to achieve the necessary majorities.

As in the past, Rhein spoke out against the initiation of an AfD ban procedure. “I advise fighting the AfD not legally, but politically,” he told the magazine.

“Don’t push behind firewalls”

After the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Rhine had already expressed criticism of the concept of the fire wall. "Talk to everyone, talk about everything, build bridges in the middle, don't push them behind firewalls," he told broadcaster Welt TV.

In terms of content, Rhein ruled out collaboration with the AfD - but called for more openness towards AfD voters: "What kind of attitude is this to leave people behind a firewall? Well, there's a fire there - and we're not bringing people in behind the firewall? That's not Christian democratic."