Saxony-Anhalt | Merz distances himself from Magdeburg's intoxicating election

“Anyone who elects a member of a right-wing extremist party as president of the state parliament must reconcile this with their conscience,” said Merz on Wednesday about the election of Tobias Rausch. He probably won with four CDU votes. Photo: dpa/AFP Pool/Ronny Hartmann After the election of AfD politician Tobias Rausch as state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt, the CDU is under increasing pressure. Leading CDU politicians expressed concern on Wednesday about possible CDU votes for Rausch, who received four more votes in his election in Magdeburg than the AfD and BSW have combined. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) emphasized that a vote for the AfD was not compatible with his party's values.

"Anyone who elects a member of a right-wing extremist party as president of the state parliament must reconcile this with their conscience," said Merz on Wednesday in Berlin. »Anyone who votes for the AfD is playing the extremist game and destroying credibility. In any case, this is not compatible with the values ​​of my party, the CDU.

However, the CDU leader and chancellor does not feel responsible for clarifying possible CDU votes for Rausch. "We don't know from whom the AfD candidate received his votes," said Merz. Whether the secret ballot will ever be clarified remains to be clarified in Saxony-Anhalt.

Other leading Christian Democrats made similar statements. »The election was secret. We can’t say where the other votes came from,” CDU General Secretary Franziska Hoppermann told Funke media. A previous internal vote in the CDU parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt resulted in a vote of abstentions or no votes. "How and whether the investigation of a secret election can be successful will have to be clarified in the state parliamentary groups."

Hoppermann described Rausch's election as a "severe blow" for the Christian Democrats. "It is clear to Germany's CDU that supporting an extremist party or a government led by it is not compatible with the values ​​of our party."

CDU Vice and Federal Family Minister Karin Prien also clearly condemned possible CDU votes for Rausch: "If it was colleagues from the CDU state parliamentary group, then that is of course completely unacceptable," she told RBB. The CDU has “clear decisions” on this, emphasized Prien. “This also includes voting for AfD proposals.”

Possible dissenters in the state parliamentary group must question themselves, said the parliamentary secretary of the Union in the Bundestag, Catarina dos Santos-Wintz (CDU), RTL and N-TV. However, she ruled out that the AfD politician Ulrich Siegmund would get votes from the CDU/CSU in the prime ministerial election in Saxony-Anhalt in December. “I know from the state parliamentary groups and the state party that that will not be the case,” emphasized dos Santos-Wintz.

Meanwhile, sharp criticism of the CDU came from the left. “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 to the AFP news agency, addressing the Union. Merz and the elected Prime Minister Sven Schulze (CDU) "no longer have their business under control and are failing miserably in the fight for democracy." The Chancellor must ensure consequences after this “fall from grace”.

If there is "even one vote from the Union" for the AfD's top candidate Siegmund, Merz will "finally go down in history as the party leader who paved the way to power for the right-wing extremists," warned Reichinnek.

In his election on Tuesday, Rausch received four more votes than the AfD and BSW combined - the BSW had previously declared its support for the AfD candidate. The SPD, the Greens and the Left had announced that they would vote no.

The SPD parliamentary group held a spontaneous protest rally in the center of Berlin on Tuesday evening. For this purpose, several MPs gathered on Bebelplatz, the site of the book burnings under National Socialism. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) sang the national anthem. "It's the day of anger, it's the day of disappointment," said Pistorius about the election of the AfD state parliament president. "Whoever allowed this to happen has violated the democracy of our great country."

A meeting of the coalition committee of the Union and SPD was planned for Thursday evening. SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch has already announced that Saxony-Anhalt should also be discussed.  AFP/nd

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