State parliamentary presidential election in Magdeburg: The CDU is only one step away from the abyss

T he election of the state parliament president in Magdeburg on October 6, 2026 is a historic event. For Saxony-Anhalt, for the rise of the extreme right. And for the impending collapse of Germany's conservative people's party, the CDU. For the first time, members of the Union elected a representative of a right-wing extremist party to a high state office - well elected, that's what you have to write about.

We will probably never know who the four question marks were. The election was secret, and the MPs who voted for AfD man Tobias Rausch are unlikely to reveal themselves. But mathematical and political logic, pre-election statements and media reports suggest no other conclusion.

When he was elected, Rausch received four more votes than the AfD and BSW MPs combined. The Union was the only faction to announce that it would abstain. But only four MPs did that. The SPD, the Greens and the Left were always clear in their opposition to this. Die Zeit also reports that there were agreements between the AfD and representatives of the CDU.

Everything suggests that the four votes for the AfD man came from the Union.

The silence at the top of the CDU is shocking. Hardly anyone commented on the breaking of taboos in Saxony-Anhalt. And when they did, they played dumb and pointed out that the election was ultimately secret. Chancellor Friedrich Merz once again doesn't comment. But Merz and the Union will not get away with this.

The loud silence shows how much has gone wrong in the past six years. In 2020, Thomas Kemmerich was surprisingly elected Prime Minister of Thuringia with votes from the CDU and AfD. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as party leader and Angela Merkel as chancellor had to muster all their political strength to convince the stubborn state CDU that the election was a mistake. Kramp-Karrenbauer paid for this with her office.

This time it's not about an FDP man in cowboy boots. There was no need and no trick from the AfD. Six years after Kemmerich, the party leadership let it happen that some of its representatives have apparently elected an AfD man to the highest state office in a federal state. Merz knows that he does not have the political weight of Merkel. If he got involved in Magdeburg, it could backfire.

How broken the CDU is is also shown by its completely disparate voting behavior. The acting Prime Minister Sven Schulze was elected head of the shrunken parliamentary group with a lot of hassle. For the election of the state parliament president, he recommended that his representatives abstain. But what the faction leader says apparently means nothing anymore.

Even if the CDU has enjoyed warming itself around this campfire in recent weeks: liberal democracy is not threatened by the Berlin Left. It is conservatives who elect right-wing extremists and allow them to do so.

In December, Ulrich Siegmund stands in the Magdeburg state parliament to become Prime Minister. Until then, the Union must clarify where it stands: on the side of liberal democracy or on the side of the authoritarians? Neither will work.

The CDU is only one step away from the abyss. Maybe she has already decided to move on. If she still wants to turn things around, the next few weeks are her last chance, otherwise it could tear the party apart. If the Chancellor and party leader no longer have authority to do this, the CDU needs a new one.