Saxony-Anhalt: AfD wants to hand over a committee chairmanship to the BSW

The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt wants to hand over the chairmanship of a state parliament committee to the BSW. A BSW spokesman confirmed this to SPIEGEL. The news agency dpa and “t-online” initially reported. With five members, the BSW is the smallest parliamentary group in the new state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt and, with 5.3 percent, narrowly made it into parliament. Actually, the BSW is not entitled to chair a committee.

As the portal "t-online" first reported, the AfD secured the chairs of six committees in a meeting in the state parliament's council of elders. The newly elected state parliament president Tobias Rausch (AfD) confirmed to the news portal that the AfD wants to hand over the chairmanship of the education committee to the BSW. The AfD parliamentary group must first agree to this. The AfD and the state parliament administration did not initially respond to a request.

The AfD won by far the most votes in the state elections a month ago, but fell short of an absolute majority. AfD and BSW are currently holding exploratory talks about possible support for an AfD government. The BSW has so far ruled out a coalition. The talks are therefore about content that an AfD-led minority government would have to implement.

With a view to the election of the Prime Minister, the BSW has announced that it will abstain. Before the election of the state parliament president on Tuesday, the BSW announced that it would vote for the AfD politician Rausch.

BSW and AfD want to pass the first joint motion in the state parliament soon: aid to Ukraine should be stopped and sanctions on Russia should be lifted. There will be a special session of parliament in Magdeburg for this purpose.

The application calls on the state government to “use all the means at its disposal, in particular through a corresponding initiative in the Federal Council, to prevent further escalation in Ukraine and to implement a peace-building policy.” The focus should be on diplomacy. "What is necessary is an immediate ceasefire and the start of peace negotiations with Russia."

The aim is to normalize economic relations between Germany and Russia and to immediately lift the economic sanctions, according to the draft from the more Russia-friendly parties. Such a request would have a primarily symbolic effect; the central authority regarding aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia lies in Berlin and Brussels.