Government for Saxony-Anhalt: When the absurd becomes possible

After the long election campaign on the streets of Saxony-Anhalt, life is returning to the state parliament. The new factions of the six elected parties met on Tuesday for the first time since the election.

One of them is the Greens. Their state chairwoman Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz says from the seating area in her office: When she thinks about the result from two days ago, she is still worried about Saxony-Anhalt.

In Sunday's election, the national authoritarian AfD received around 44 percent of the vote. Not an absolute majority. It has 39 of 83 seats in parliament. However: CDU, SPD, Greens and Left also have 39 seats together.

There is therefore a stalemate between the parties that rule out cooperation with the AfD and the AfD. The BSW won the five remaining seats. Their top people say they are open to almost anything. This means that a government under the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt is still possible, but not certain.

The Green Party leader therefore initially sees two options: either Saxony-Anhalt gets a “fascist government” or, if the BSW abstains, a stalemate results. Sziborra-Seidlitz thoughtfully strokes her hand over a cushion in her sitting area. Then she names a third variant: an independent prime minister who does not belong to any party.

The BSW advertised this proposal in the election campaign. "This is a very unusual idea. But it wouldn't fail because of us. We are ready to talk," says Sziborra-Seidlitz. An independent candidate is "the last straw if we want to prevent both a fascist government and a blockade in the country. We were elected for the first, the second would also be bad for the country."

But who could this independent candidate be? The Green politician does not want to make any suggestions at the moment. “It is important that the CDU sorts itself out and possibly makes a proposal or that a proposal comes from the BSW.” This is not about coalition talks. The BSW is “not reliable enough,” says Sziborra-Seidlitz.

About an hour later, Katja Pähle answers the phone. The long-time parliamentary group leader of the SPD in Saxony-Anhalt tells the taz that after the election she is pleased with her party's result. The SPD received around 10,000 more votes than five years ago. “In the meantime, some people had already written us out of parliament,” says Pähle.

And what is the situation otherwise? "Difficult." Nobody expected the election result. The stalemate, the possible AfD government. It is difficult to say who could govern in Saxony-Anhalt. An independent prime minister? If this could resolve a blockade, she didn't want to categorically rule it out. But as a basic requirement for this, the SPD must first know who exactly they are talking about.

I asked Claudia Wittig: She moved in via the BSW list. On Tuesday afternoon she is standing in an event room in Magdeburg. Your newly founded parliamentary group has just declared at a press conference there that it wants to talk to the AfD about content-related projects. There is no firewall for the BSW. But the party has not yet directly said yes to a coalition with the right-wing extremists.

They would talk to all parties, explains Wittig. She is pleased that the Greens and SPD are open to the BSW proposal for a non-partisan Prime Minister. But what would a candidate have to bring with him? She could imagine someone from the cultural sector or science. The BSW already has concrete ideas, but she doesn't want to name any names yet. “For us it is essentially about a peace policy perspective, internally and externally.” For Wittig, this also means that it must be supported by all parties in parliament, including the AfD.

While Wittig is telling this, the Left MPs are meeting in the state parliament on Tuesday for the first time since the election. When asked by the taz, they did not want to comment on how the Left currently sees the situation in Saxony-Anhalt.

At the same time, the CDU parliamentary group is already electing its chairman. Instead of the previous 40 MPs, it now only consists of 15. Sven Schulze, the CDU state chairman, top candidate and prime minister, apparently does not want to say goodbye to politics in Saxony-Anhalt despite the bitter election defeat. He is elected with only 8 out of 15 votes. There was an opposing candidate who was only narrowly defeated by Schulze.

The loser of the election announced consequences on Monday evening. The CDU no longer has a government mandate. “We will see our role as opposition when a new government is elected.” The entire board will be completely re-elected at a special party conference at the end of the year.

While Schulze said this into the journalists' microphones, State Secretary General Mario Karschunke nodded next to him. A day later he confirmed to the taz that he would also resign from his position. The CDU in Saxony-Anhalt must “rebuild itself on a rock-solid basis,” explained Karschunke. New, young people are needed in the party. Also in the top positions of the regional association. “Maintenance of power” should not play a role.

The CDU will hold a closed meeting to discuss why it lost this election so badly, he says. And: "Sven Schulze ran an excellent election campaign. It can't be his fault." People were concerned about high fuel prices or questions about what would happen to energy and pensions. Federal political issues.

Karschunke believes that after the election campaign analysis, it must then be a question of how the CDU with 15 MPs can still take place in Saxony-Anhalt. Over the last 24 years, she has provided the Prime Minister and several ministers. That's over now. The CDU politician is nevertheless optimistic: “If we do it sensibly, it won’t be the end, but a beginning.”