Saxony-Anhalt | Tobias Rausch: AfD President receives extra votes

The AfD politician Tobias Rausch was elected President of the State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt. Photo: dpa/Ronny Hartmann The new state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt has elected AfD politician Tobias Rausch as its president. 48 of the 83 MPs voted for the 35-year-old, 29 voted against him and five abstained. The AfD, which emerged as the clear winner of the election on September 6th with 43.8 percent, has 39 MPs. The election had previously been considered safe because the BSW, which was represented in parliament for the first time with five members, had also signaled support. However, Rausch also received four other votes beyond AfD and BSW. The CDU parliamentary group, which had shrunk to 15 members, had previously announced that it would abstain. Prime Minister Sven Schulte had declared that, given the secured majority, the CDU's votes were irrelevant. The leader of the Green Party, Susann Sziborra-Seidlitz, then explained that the election of a representative from a firmly right-wing extremist party had “crossed a line”.

After Rausch was elected, the election of the vice president was on the agenda. A dispute arose. The AfD, as the strongest faction, pushed to be able to fill one of the posts and wanted to reverse a change to the rules of procedure that had only been decided in June. She nominated MP Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, who is considered the party's chief ideologist and was considered a prospective culture minister. However, there was no sign of a majority for him because, unlike Rausch, the BSW did not want to support him. The BSW also wanted to refuse support to Armin Willingmann, the previous science minister proposed by the SPD. The CDU proposed MP Carsten Borchert.

The meeting was opened by left-wing MP Eva von Angern, who has been a member of parliament since 2002 and thus acted as senior president. She remembered Clara Zetkin as one of the few female predecessors in the office. The KPD MP opened the session of the newly elected Reichstag on August 30, 1932 - at the beginning of the "darkest time" in German history, as von Angern emphasized. The NSDAP politician Hermann Göring was then elected President of Parliament. To date, he was the last representative of a right-wing extremist party to hold such an office.

"With this election a limit has been crossed."

Von Angern emphasized, referring to the rapid establishment of the Nazi dictatorship, that the democratic foundation "does not hold securely through all adversities." She quoted the comedian Hape Kerkeling, who declared last May in a speech on the anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp that democracy is "not a gift" and must be defended by every generation "against the complacency of looking away." Von Angern quoted the “Antifa clause” from the state constitution of Saxony-Anhalt. This declares it an obligation of the state and every individual not to allow the glorification of Nazi rule or racist and anti-Semitic activities. The passage was included in the state constitution in 2020 - against the votes of the AfD.

Addressing them, von Angern, at the suggestion of one of her sons, quoted a sentence from the Spiderman comics, according to which "great power comes with great responsibility." The AfD is preparing to take political responsibility for the country “and all people” in Saxony-Anhalt, emphasized von Angern. Von Angern called the initial actions of the party, which aimed to dominate parliamentary committees and force the SPD and Green factions out of the state parliament, “drunk with power”. This was “not a good start to state political responsibility.” The senior president called for more balanced action, also in view of the actual stalemate in parliament and the associated “trouble at the level”.

The constituent meeting and the election of an AfD state parliament president caused warnings from civil society. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation explained that if the office of parliamentary president falls into the hands of the AfD, “the guardian of parliament could become a baton against democracy.” The “Saxony-Anhalt cosmopolitan” alliance warned that the current electoral period could be marked by “devastating decisions for the democratic development of Saxony-Anhalt.” At the same time, the alliance of more than 300 organizations, associations and initiatives emphasized: “We will not allow ourselves to be pushed out.”

In front of the state parliament, various organizations called for creative protests. Among other things, there were choral readings from the first 20 articles of the Basic Law. These include the basic rights and the central principles of the state. The reading was part of a day of action by the “Solidarisches Magdeburg” alliance and the “Culture is Diversity and Home” initiative. On the evening of the first day of the meeting, the writer Anne Rabe invited people to an event entitled “Not with us!” in the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, which is intended to express solidarity with civil society in Saxony-Anhalt.

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