Election in Saxony-Anhalt: Read: AfD politician as state parliament president “not normal”

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Olaf Lies believes that the election of an AfD politician as state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt should not be repeated. “This is not normal and it must not be normal for Germany,” said the SPD politician in the Lower Saxony state parliament. “All of our efforts must be made to win majorities for parties in the democratic center, “in order to ensure that such elections do not happen again.”

In Saxony-Anhalt, Tobias Rausch was elected as the new state parliament president on Tuesday. He received 48 votes - but the AfD and the BSW, which had announced Rausch's election, only received 44 votes together. Rausch said he received votes from the CDU in the secret election.

Lies did not comment on whether CDU MPs voted for the AfD man. He doesn't want to accuse anyone of anything. But the Prime Minister said he was very interested in knowing: “What does that mean for the CDU as a whole? Does that also change the course of the CDU?" The additional votes for the AfD man “should also not be normal”.

CDU boss: Do everything to ensure that “this doesn’t become a common practice”

Lower Saxony's CDU parliamentary group and party leader Sebastian Lechner made similar comments. “We will do everything we can to ensure that this does not become a common practice in Germany,” he said, referring to the election of an AfD politician as President of the State Parliament.

He dismissed statements about possible agreements between AfD and CDU politicians regarding the election of the state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt and possibly also an AfD prime minister as attempts to disrupt. “This is also a targeted strategy to discredit and unsettle the CDU.” This has already been tried in Lower Saxony. The Lower Saxony opposition leader once again rejected cooperation with the party, citing party conference resolutions.

The Saxony-Anhalt AfD has been classified as definitely right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution there since November 2023. The party takes legal action against the classification. The proceedings were recently suspended.