Saxony-Anhalt | After the Rausch election, the pressure on the CDU is growing

Sören Pellmann, parliamentary group leader of Die Linke in the Bundestag, criticizes Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his speculation about the election of the AfD state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt. Photo: dpa/Michael Kappeler Berlin. After the election of AfD politician Tobias Rausch as state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt, left-wing parliamentary group leader Sören Pellmann called on Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) to take action within his own 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 Germany editorial network.

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 Germany's first AfD state parliament president on Tuesday. In the secret vote, Rausch received 48 out of 82 votes – four more than the AfD and BSW combined.

The Chancellor warned on Wednesday against “hasty conclusions” about the CDU’s votes. 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. Merz left it open which third group he meant alongside the AfD and BSW.

Pellmann rejected the statements. "It's scandalous how the CDU wants to shirk responsibility," he said. "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.

CDU member of the Bundestag Serap Güler assumes that when Rausch was elected president of the state parliament, CDU members also voted for him. If five of the 14 CDU MPs who took part in the vote had abstained in the end, "one or two CDU members will have supported this decision," said the State Minister in the Foreign Office in an interview with RTL/NTV. “I don’t think we need to sugarcoat it now.”

The CDU workers' wing (CDA) is calling for consequences if votes from the CDU parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt helped AfD politician Tobias Rausch become president of the state parliament. "If it turns out that CDU MPs have elected the AfD candidate as state parliament president, I expect the party to initiate party expulsion proceedings against them," CDA boss Dennis Radtke told the Augsburger Allgemeine. “This must also apply to future votes: anyone who brings political responsibility to right-wing extremists must expect consequences.” Agencies/nd

Sören Pellmann, parliamentary group leader of Die Linke in the Bundestag, criticizes Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his speculation about the election of the AfD state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt. Photo: dpa/Michael Kappeler The bill won't work without you. With us, no one has to pay to be informed. Sounds like a bad business model? It is too. But independent journalism and participation for everyone are more important to us than profit. Journalism still costs money: research, printing and all the people who do it. That's why we depend on you. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year.

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