The SPD, Greens, Left and BSW met at the end of September for an initial exchange about a possible non-partisan prime minister. The discussions should continue after the constituent meeting. The CDU rejected the SPD's invitation because it sees itself in the opposition. However, her group's votes would have been necessary for a majority in the state parliament.
“After the election, we examined every democratic option and invited the CDU, Greens, Left and BSW to the table,” says SPD state chairwoman Juliane Kleemann. The BSW is now organizing majorities with the AfD. The CDU initially stayed away from the talks and now apparently cannot get its own group together to block right-wing extremists from reaching the highest state offices.
North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst criticizes the election of Tobias Rausch as President of the State Parliament. He describes the process as a “deep cut in our republic,” as “Spiegel” reports. “Parliament is the heart of our democracy,” says Wüst. “And the fact that it is now led in Saxony-Anhalt by a member of a firmly right-wing extremist party shows that something has started to shake in our country.”
Chancellor and CDU leader Friedrich Merz is critical of the election of AfD politician Tobias Rausch as state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt. Because of the secret ballot, no one knows exactly who voted for Rausch, he said at an event hosted by “Handelsblatt” and “WirtschaftsWoche” in Berlin. Nevertheless, it is true that anyone who votes for the AfD is playing “the extremist game” and destroying credibility, says Merz: “In any case, that is not compatible with the values of my party, the CDU.”
Schleswig-Holstein's CDU chairman Daniel Günther sharply criticizes the election of an AfD politician as state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt with votes from other factions. “The majority of members of the state parliament, which goes beyond the votes of the AfD and BSW, are responsible for a result that leaves us stunned and horrified,” writes Günther on his state chairman account on Facebook. “If anyone from the Union’s ranks was involved in this, he or she did not act according to the Union’s values.” Günther continues: "For us, without exception, there is no cooperation with right-wing extremists. Not in governments and not in parliament." Anyone who sticks to their word in the voting booth should be upright - especially when no one is looking. “In these times, the political center has a damned duty more than ever to solve the country’s problems together,” said the state chairman, who is Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein.
Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) has expressed concern about the election of an AfD politician as state parliament president in neighboring Saxony-Anhalt. “The fact that the office of the highest representative in the country in terms of protocol went to someone who comes from a party that is classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution must not become normal,” said Lies.
The Saxony-Anhalt state parliament president Tobias Rausch (AfD) assumes that he was also elected with votes from the CDU parliamentary group. He also told the “Nius” portal that it had been agreed that AfD prime minister candidate Ulrich Siegmund could also count on these four votes in the election in December.
The deputy SPD parliamentary group leader Wiebke Esdar takes Chancellor Friedrich Merz to task after the election of an AfD politician as state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt. As chairman of the CDU, it is his responsibility to convince his colleagues that this election is “incompatible with the historical responsibility that we all have in a democracy, especially when we are elected to parliament,” Esdar said on Deutschlandfunk.
The SPD politician doesn't necessarily expect a word of power from Merz. “I believe that politics today works more with values and beliefs.” She too will not allow herself to be intimidated by power words in her political actions. But: “I expect that the Union will now finally recognize what historical responsibility we have to ensure that right-wing extremist parties are not helped to power again in Germany,” Esdar continued. A clear demarcation is needed.
The vice-chairwoman of the federal CDU, Family Minister Karin Prien, expressed concern after the election of an AfD state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt. She doesn't yet have any confirmation that "it has been clarified in this secret election who voted and how, but I want to say clearly: If it was colleagues from the CDU state parliamentary group, then that is of course completely unacceptable. We have clear decisions on this. This also includes voting for AfD proposals."
After the election of AfD politician Tobias Rausch as state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt, the Left sees the danger of a right-wing extremist government in the country and has sharply criticized the CDU. “Anyone who gives their vote to a right-wing extremist has lost all right to call themselves a democrat,” said parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek. Anyone who “abstains from this has no attitude”. If there is “even one vote from the Union” for the AfD top candidate Ulrich Siegmund, who wants to stand for election in Magdeburg in December, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) will “finally go down in history as the party leader who paved the way to power for the right-wing extremists,” warned Reichinnek.
