State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt: AfD politician Tobias Rausch wants clearer words in parliament

Exactly one month after the election in Saxony-Anhalt, the new state parliament was formed in Magdeburg. The most important item on the agenda is the election of the President of Parliament and his deputies.

With Tobias Rausch, a member of the AfD election winner, which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as “certain right-wing extremist,” could become parliamentary speaker for the first time.

The new state parliament has 83 seats, 39 of which are occupied by the AfD parliamentary group. For the first time, this will not sit on the right but in the center of parliament.

The CDU parliamentary group only has 15 seats and will now sit on the far left in the plenary hall. To the right of the AfD parliamentary group are the eight MPs each from the Left, SPD and Greens, and on the far right is the BSW parliamentary group.

Tobias Rausch promises fairness and consistency in office. During his time in the opposition, he experienced how controversial parliamentary work can be, says Tobias Rausch in his inaugural speech. He wants to take this experience with him into his new office and protect the rights of Parliament.

For the period now beginning in the state parliament, he would like to see a parliament "in which there are passionate arguments, in which clearer words are spoken, in which the government and opposition wrestle with each other." At the same time, it should never be forgotten that all representatives have received a mandate from the citizens.

“You sometimes have the feeling that society and parts of its representatives have forgotten that you can have different political opinions and still treat each other normally and fairly,” says Rausch. He will therefore lead the office of President of the State Parliament with fairness, calm and the necessary consistency. »My door will be open. I will listen. I will take different opinions seriously. And I will try to make decisions transparently and comprehensibly.«

At the end of his speech there was applause from the AfD and BSW factions.

Rausch says that outside of parliament no one is interested in party political tactics. People only have one simple question: whether the country is functioning. "The days of political firewalls should be a thing of the past."

Tobias Rausch takes over as President of Parliament. In his speech he thanked the MPs for their trust. He stands before them “with great gratitude, but above all with great respect for this office.”

He got to know parliamentary opposition work, but today his role is changing: "That's why I would like to make something clear right from the start: I will not hold this office as president of a parliamentary group, but I will hold it as president of the entire state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt."

A loud siren sounds on the cathedral square. At the rally here on Magdeburg Cathedral Square, a live broadcast of the session in the state parliament is running. When it is announced that Tobias Rausch has been elected President of the State Parliament, the Center for Political Beauty's Adenauer bus plays a loud siren.

“Oh shit,” says a woman from Altmark in Saxony-Anhalt about the election results. She took a day off to attend the rally in front of the state parliament today.

“Alerta, alerta, antifascista,” the demonstrators shout to the sound of the siren.

The Green Party leader Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz takes the podium. She says that there is no normal constitution of parliament today. “Today it can be seen that a limit has been crossed with the election of a member of a clearly right-wing extremist and anti-constitutional party as President of this House.”

The President of the State Parliament is formally the highest representative of the federal state. The office demands that you see yourself as a representative of the state and the state parliament, not as a representative of a party. "Anyone who gives this office to a representative of a right-wing extremist and anti-constitutional party bears responsibility for what comes of it." This responsibility can neither be hidden behind parliamentary customs nor handled by pointing to the strongest faction.

Sziborra-Seidlitz announces resistance. "We will intervene if the rights of minorities and the opposition are to be curtailed." The independence of science, culture and the media will be defended and every decision made by the President and the Presidium will be measured by whether it protects the rights of the MPs. Where this does not happen, parliamentary and legal options will be exhausted. "We won't be intimidated, and we won't get used to it."

The AfD group stands up and applauds. Tobias Rausch accepts the election.

The seniority president reads out the result of the vote: AfD politician Tobias Rausch received 48 yes votes. 29 MPs voted no, five abstained. The 35-year-old Rausch was elected as the new state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt in the first round of voting.

The AfD and BSW factions have a total of 44 votes. This means: Rausch was elected with at least four votes from one or more other factions - provided the AfD and BSW voted for him as a unit.

It is a historic result: for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, a politician from a right-wing extremist party is the president of a parliament.

All MPs have cast their votes and it is now being counted. The meeting is suspended until the results are announced.

The MPs are called individually by name, pick up a ballot paper and go into a voting booth where they fill out the paper. This is then thrown into a ballot box. So it will take some time until the result is available.

Seniority President Eva von Angern points out that a simple majority is sufficient to elect the President of the State Parliament. This means that abstentions are counted as votes not cast. The winner is the person with more yes votes than no votes.

After parliament has elected the secretaries, the next step is the eagerly awaited agenda item eight - the election of the state parliament president.

The discussion about the agenda is representative of how the AfD parliamentary group has acted in the state parliament so far: the MPs are staying calm, voting together with the other parliamentary groups for the agenda and rules of procedure, and the parliamentary group leadership is willing to talk and compromise.

It remains to be seen whether the overall cautious and constructive atmosphere in parliament will continue with agenda items eight and ten - the elections of the state parliament president and his deputies.

With this constitutive session of the state parliament, a phenomenon that has already shaped the election campaign in Saxony-Anhalt is also moving into the state parliament: the streamers. In the weeks before the election, they accompanied many AfD events in hour-long live streams; the AfD's relationship with individual actors was repeatedly the subject of discussions, also because journalists were repeatedly harassed at events.

On Tuesday morning you can see streamers in tow with Ulrich Siegmund on the cathedral square in front of the state parliament, and later a team from “Utopia TV” is positioned in the state parliament canteen. During the senior president's speech, there is an exchange with viewers of the stream. “Don’t give up hope” and “I’m sure there will be a positive change,” says a streamer to the followers; The word spoken in the state parliament is only listened to in passing.

The new state parliament has 83 seats, so the absolute majority is 42 votes, the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional change is 56. The AfD parliamentary group occupies 39 seats. The CDU parliamentary group only has 15 seats, the Left, SPD and Greens each have eight representatives and the BSW has five.

It is eagerly awaited to see whether AfD candidate Tobias Rausch will get more votes for the post of parliamentary speaker than the 39 in his parliamentary group and the five from the BSW, which had announced its support.

Contrary to the previous rules of procedure, the AfD wants to appoint a vice-president in addition to the state parliament president. There is currently a discussion about how to deal with a corresponding request to change the rules of procedure, which had been announced in advance. It had been planned in advance that the Council of Elders would meet with representatives from all factions during the break and discuss possible changes to the rules of procedure.

Following discussions with the group leaders, Eva von Angern announced that it had been agreed to keep the agenda as planned. The MPs agree.