Saxony-Anhalt: Pellmann demands: Merz must close ranks in the CDU

After the election of the AfD state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt, the left-wing parliamentary group leader Sören Pellmann called on Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) to take action in his party. “As party chairman, he has a responsibility to close his own ranks here - otherwise he will join in with the Magdeburg scandal and increasingly pave the way to power for the right-wing extremist AfD,” said the Leipzig member of the Bundestag to the Editorial Network Germany (RND).

Merz should explain "how he wants to get his business back under control and prevent there being CDU votes for an AfD prime minister or other forms of cooperation between his party and the AfD."

Tobias Rausch was elected as the AfD's first state parliament president in Germany on Tuesday. In the secret vote for state parliament president, Rausch received 48 out of 82 votes - four more than the AfD and BSW factions combined.

Merz believes “flase flag operation” is possible

The Chancellor warned on Wednesday against “hasty conclusions” about votes from the CDU. Merz also spoke of the possibility of a “false flag operation” by parliamentarians from other factions in order to discredit CDU MPs. There are at least two, perhaps even three groups in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament “that are doing everything they can to undermine cohesion in our democracy,” he said at an event in Berlin. He did not comment on which third group he meant besides the AfD and the BSW.

Pellmann rejected the statements. “It is scandalous how the CDU wants to shirk responsibility,” said Pellmann. “Neither the Greens, the Left nor Santa Claus will have given the AfD the votes for the right-wing extremist state parliament president.” Merz should not duck away.