Holger Stahlknecht criticizes the election of Sven Schulze as CDU parliamentary group leader

Former Saxony-Anhalt CDU leader Holger Stahlknecht has criticized the election of Prime Minister Sven Schulze as CDU parliamentary group leader. “This is a completely wrong signal,” Stahlknecht told the “Magdeburger Volksstimme”. The CDU parliamentary group is now divided. “That will affect the work.”

Schulze narrowly prevailed against previous parliamentary group leader Guido Heuer in a vote on Tuesday. Stahlknecht pointed out the meaning of the separation of powers. This will be undermined “if the Prime Minister, as a representative of the executive, takes over the parliamentary group chairmanship at the same time, i.e. a position in the legislature”.

The 61-year-old continued: "Something like this can perhaps be done for a few weeks, but in Saxony-Anhalt there is a risk of a months-long stalemate in which Sven Schulze will remain head of government."

Criticism of giving up MPK chairmanship

Stahlknecht also criticized the current head of government, Schulze, for advocating forgoing Saxony-Anhalt's rotating chairmanship of the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK) from October. “I see no reason to override existing institutionalized regulations just because an AfD was democratically elected,” said Stahlknecht. “A democracy has to endure this and at the same time maintain its ability to defend itself. But you can’t do that by avoiding confrontation.”

Stahlknecht was Interior Minister from 2011 to 2020 and CDU state chairman in Saxony-Anhalt from 2018 to 2020. He was fired in December 2020 by then Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) and then resigned as party leader. The trigger was an interview in which Stahlknecht brought a CDU minority government into play in a coalition dispute over the broadcasting fee. Most recently, Stahlknecht was a member of the state parliament, but he no longer ran for the state elections.